Transcendental Mysteries
by FrostedPurpleIrises91
Summary: Rewrite of "Love is a Lake". There was the fear of the unearthly. Fear turned into hatred. Hatred was usurped by alms. Alms became fascination. Fascination gave birth to love, the greatest transcendental mystery. CybertronianXHuman romance. TFA. AU and some Prime elements. T for PG-13 themes.
1. Spirit of the Season

**Uh, yeah! I'm alive, I'm not dead! I managed to type this up on my relative's computer and I got it done pretty quickly. I have decided to do a rewrite of LIAL because I thought I could do better at this romance story. There where will be a few major changes like new OCs and events but I will still keep a lot of themes too. Hopefully, this story will be better than LIAL like I've been aiming it to be so. Also, after I'm finished with this story, I WILL NOT be writing a sequel so please don't beg for one (and please stop me from doing so if I have a compulsive desire to write one). There will be a few new couples but I'm not spoiling anymore things :3 **

**So please, enjoy the rewrite's first chapter. And PLEASE tell me if I need to fix anything (especially if it deals with any possible Mary Sue-ness with my OCs. I'm trying to make them non-cliched as possible). I value your reviews and your time for reading this :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, the music, products and movies featured in this fic. The OCs belong to me. **

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 1 Spirit of the Season

(The Preston residence – December 18th: 1:00pm)

"Aww, cripes! Really?"

Amanda Anne Preston threw the garland unceremoniously to the ground. She folded her arms across her chest and refused to carry on with the rest of the decorating. Besides, she already pricked her fingers a few times from the tricky Christmas bulb hooks. Annoyed, she brushed her blonde bangs out of her pale green eyes and stewed in the middle of the living room.

"You're such a princess!" her sister declared without looking up from her book. "How hard is it to wrap a garland around the tree?"

"I don't see you busting your butt, Cynthia," Mandy growled. "Your nose has been in that book since you got up. How long are you going to be reading that stupid thing?"

"I've been reading it for the past three hours. You act like books are the Devil."

"Okay, you've been reading it since ten. It's one now. Do you mind helping me out a little bit before Mom and Dad come over? You even said you wanted everything set up for their arrival." The blonde cocked her head to the side. "And just what are you reading?"

"I'm breezing through my earth science textbook so I can prepare myself for the next semester of joyous, joyous college."

"You don't go back for another month and you're doing…this?" Amanda was perplexed by her elder sibling's reasoning.

"I plan on finishing and ending the semester strong. I'm getting my degree in the spring and nothing's stopping me."

"Yeah, that's great, Jimmy Neutron. Now will you at least help me a bit? Darien's probably not going to be back until midnight or later like that bum always is…"

"Little brothers are little brothers. You were out late when you were sixteen too. Heck, even at eighteen, you're still acting irresponsible."

"And for a twenty two year old going on twenty three, you're pretty mature… I mean that in a bad way too. You're like a mom."

"I had to become one when you and Darien wanted to move in with me when I decided to come to college here in Detroit. I can't believe Mom and Dad actually let you guys live with me too. Then again, Dad's always telling me to step up and face life." She set her textbook down at last. "Okay, little Mandy, let's see how we can fix this."

Cynthia got up from her comfy seat on the couch. She gently pushed past her sister and picked up the garland. Stepping up onto her tip toes, she began to wrap it around the Christmas tree.

"See, it's not that tough," Cyndi said. "You just have to put in something called 'effort'."

"Oh, please." Amanda laughed softly. "You're quite pathetic in your own ways, dear sister."

"That's not gonna work. The only pathetic thing about my persona is my week long romance with that buttwipe, Wes Larkson." She shuddered. "Ugh, never again… What was I thinking? That wasn't even real love. That was such a shallow school yard crush it wasn't even funny."

"Eh, you were thirteen when that happened. You were stupid when you were younger."

"Just like you are now, Mandy."

"How rude!"

The sisters laughed at each other. Amanda stood next to Cynthia and placed a hand on her sister's shoulder.

"You do realize I'm joking with all the mean comments right?" Mandy just wanted to remind her best friend and sister.

"Of course," Cynthia assured. "I'm messing around too, kiddo."

Conveniently, the garland began to give Cynthia some trouble as well. She couldn't wrap her arms around the tree and it gave her a little trouble with fastening the decoration around it. Without a smart word, Amanda went on the other side of the pine and helped her sister. Cyndi felt a little sheepish for not assisting her earlier while she was reading her book.

"Now you make me feel like a villain," the brunette sister moaned. "I feel like I have to apologize for not helping. Why didn't you tell me earlier rather than get frustrated?"

"I'm stubborn," the girl said.

"Well, thanks anyway."

The two sisters took a few steps back to look at the fully decorated Christmas tree. The pinecone garland they were dealing with was wrapped charmingly around the tree. Fragile yet colorful bulbs hung prettily on the branches. On the top of the tree, there was a golden star.

"Good job, Mandy," Cyndi commented. "You were always so good with decorating things."

"Thank you," Amanda beamed. "I love doing it every year. I just hate that garland!" She flopped onto the couch where Cyndi was a few moments earlier. "Now I'm gonna crash and watch '_Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer_'."

"Not only are you good at decorating, you're also the laziest girl I ever did meet. It's one! We better finish shopping before everything gets picked over."

"We can't do anything remember? Darien has the car!"

"Dammit, I cannot wait until you have enough money to get your own car! There's three of us and only one vehicle. What a nightmare…"

"Where did that stupid boy go to again anyway?"

"He told me he was going to his friend Teddy's house so they could go meet up and walk down to the mall until three or four."

Mandy's face contorted to an expression of concern and slight terror.

"Teddy?" she repeated. "The big, scary, black dude?"

"He's got a heart of gold," Cynthia defended her only brother's close friend. "Besides, Darien is a good kid and he knows to stay away from bad folks."

"Oh, is he and Teddy going down to the mall so Darien can do some of his tricks?" Mandy guffawed. "I still can't believe he wants to be an expert street magician! He's never going to be the next Criss Angel!"

"He's practicing what he loves and it's harmless… I support him. As long as he's not into crime, I don't care."

"Dad would fly over from New York and beat the living snot out of him if he got into any trouble."

"I'm more understanding and merciful than Dad…" Cyndi glanced over at the picture of her parents that sat on top of the TV. In the photo, they wore content and serene smiles. "Darien's living up life here in Detroit while he can. He hated Greenvale."

Cynthia and Amanda halted their conversation when they heard a lock click. Unanimously, they glanced over to the door that separated their apartment from the outside world. A few seconds later, a young man wearing baggy clothes walked in. He smiled at them when he entered the apartment and closed the door behind him. He wiped his feet on a mat and took off his snow encrusted boots.

"Sis One and Sis Two," Darien greeted his big sisters. He took off a black checkered skullcap, showing off his brown hair. "I'm back already."

"How was your magic act, David Blaine?" Amanda teased.

"Great actually, Paris Hilton." He shook his head in disappointment. "People were so into getting their shopping all wrapped up, they barely had anytime to watch me!"

"There's always next time, Darien," Cynthia patted his back. "Now you know to don't put on magic acts during the holiday rush."

"Big Sis, I only made ten bucks!" Darien sighed. "I'm a bigger bum than Mandy!"

"I make two hundred some odd dollars a week as a cashier," Mandy informed idly. "Do you know why I make a lot of money? I have an actual job."

"Don't be hating, Amanda!" The teenaged boy grinned. "This is Christmas. You ought to get more into the spirit of the season. It's all about peace, love and goodwill towards all mankind… Hey you think we ought to try to introduce Christmas to those big robots from space?"

"It won't work," Cyndi shook her head. "Personally, I don't even want to think about them right now. I get all paranoid and tense when I think about them. As soon as I get my degree, I'm getting the Hell out of this crazy city. And you kooky kids better follow with me."

"I'm staying here," Darien was steadfast. "I'm not going back home. I love living here with my sisters. Dad will start hating again too…"

"If you got a real job, Dad wouldn't give you grief about wasting your life!" Amanda reminded.

"Hey, peace! I don't want any trouble!" He paused and smiled. "I just remembered I wanted to tell you ladies something. I saw this advertisement while I was at the mall. There's a Christmas light display at the park from December 18th to December 30th."

"What park?" Cyndi inquired. "There're a lot of little parks here and there in this city."

"You know, the one that's about ten minutes away from the apartment. I can't remember the name of it. It's on the outskirts of the city. Why don't we go check it out tonight before Mom and Dad show up? It'll be some sibling bonding."

"That's the first good idea I heard from his mouth in over a year," Amanda taunted. "I say we do it."

"Be nice to each other, alright?" Cynthia placed her hands on her hips. "I'm Mom here."

"You sure look old like her!"

Amanda and Darien laughed at her comment. The two high fived each other, savoring the moment. Cyndi rolled her bluish gray eyes and tapped her toes on the floor.

"Yeah, ha ha, that's cute," Cynthia said sullenly. "But back to the point, I agree. Let's go to the park. It'll give us something interesting to do other than eat, work, and watch movies until three in the morning. Darien, did you catch when exactly the opening times are?"

"It was from six until eleven," he answered.

"Alright, then we'll do it." She threw her arms across the width of their shoulders. "You guys are the only reason why I give this city a second chance."

(Decepticon base – 7:45pm)

"Snow…" The angry seeker glared hatefully at the white frozen water crystals. "What use does it have?"

Starscream stood at the mouth of the mine, gazing through the dark and foreboding pine forest that surrounded the Decepticon lair. His arms were folded across his chassis and he clearly looked annoyed and less than pleased. As he waited at the entrance, his patience ebbed dangerously and he became increasingly irritable. The reality that he was on Earth spoilt his attitude even more. However the penultimate annoyance in this current moment in his existence was the fact that he was perpetually the second-in-command of the Decepticons.

"Where are you, you miserable piece of slag…" he grumbled. "Do I have to drag you out of your quarters to..?"

"Starscream, I'm here."

Starscream's ruby optics widened and he turned around, facing the owner of the voice.

"It took you long enough, Blitzwing," he spat. "I thought you were never going to show up. I thought drastic measures would have to be taken in order to retrieve you…"

"Apologies for ze slight delay," Icy nodded. "Vhat have jou summoned me for?"

"It's nothing really." Starscream paced around the triple changer. "It's just a simple errand."

"Don't build up ze suspense!" Random blurted. "Tell me!"

"You're going to go look for Allspark fragments for me. Megatron ordered me to do it but I'm not feeling too inclined to do it at the moment. So you can do it for me."

Blitzwing stared at Starscream for a few seconds with an indeterminable expression on the jack-o-lantern face. The air commander raised his brow, piqued by the crazy three-faced bot's mannerisms. There was an awkward silence that was so stifling, even Starscream felt a bit uncomfortable with it.

"Slag zat!" Hothead promptly replaced the giddy persona. "I'm not doing jour vork for jou!"

"Excuse me?" Starscream narrowed his optics cruelly. "If I must remember correctly, I helped you and Lugnut reassemble yourselves after I salvaged your parts from that wretched lake! You swore fealty to me!"

"Ja, and Megatron is back online! Jou have no more power, Starscream!"

"That's where you forget your place, Blitzwing! True, I am no longer the supreme overlord of the Decepticons…" He growled inwardly at this acknowledgment. "But with Megatron's glorious and imminent revival, I have been given my possession of being the second-in-command. That means, I still lord over you."

"Megatron gave jou zat assignment so jou better do it! I'm not doing it!"

"What other better thing do you have to do? Tell me, I earnestly want to know…"

"Likevise," Icy. He grinned menacingly at Starscream. "Jou don't intimidate me. Only Megatron makes me obey unquestioningly. Frankly, I don't trust jou. Vhy Megatron didn't offline jou as soon as he became strong again, I can't fathom. I know jou have no real allegiance to him. Jou can't be trusted and jou never vill be."

"Aren't we Decepticons all slimy, dishonorable and uncouth liars and deceivers?" Starscream snickered lowly. "It's in our sparks. It's in our names for Primus' sake."

"Perhaps… But vhen it comes down to our leader, exceptions must be made, Starscream. Jou abuse jour position and potential to ze point vhere not even jour fellow Decepticons can trust or admire jou."

"This is getting rather drawn out and boring, wouldn't you agree? Why don't you go off and look for some fragments? You'll do us both a favor by leaving for awhile."

"Jou better vatch out, Starscream!" Random giggled like an evil child. "Jou're not ze only vily Decepticon here!"

"I can't take that very seriously at all…" He rolled his optics. "Now get!"

"But jou'll take me seriously!" Hothead fumed, raising a fist at him.

Starscream raised his wrists at Blitzwing, preparing to fire his null rays at him. Blitzwing's cannon barrels came down over his shoulders, pointing directly at the air commander. They stood before each other, just waiting for the other to incite the fight and unloose chaos.

"I dare you!" Starscream gritted his teeth. "Come on, be a bot about it and take a shot!" He laughed haughtily. "Or are you going to wait for Megatron to tell you to do it?"

"I am so tempted but I vill not fire," Icy said, overriding Hothead. "Amongst my fellow Decepticons, I choose not be ze aggressor."

"Heh, how do you even manage to function even though you barely do so?" He lowered his arms, seeing he wouldn't have to fire a shot. "To me, it seems like you'd be a lot better off before you even became a triple changer when you got rebuilt after the Great War. Yet even then, you always were weak."

Blitzwing could only glare at his superior and allow him to berate him. The triple changer wore a sour expression and said nothing. Starscream wallowed in his victory and his bad mood became a little lighter and less oppressive.

"Well, I'm happy to see that you two maturely both decided to cease the fight before it could acclimate," said a new voice.

Starscream and Blitzwing spun around, facing the entrance of the mine. A pair of evil-looking ruby optics looked back at them from the shadows.

"He started it all!" Starscream pointed at the triple changer. "Megatron, will you send him out? He's driving all of us crazy!"

"I thought I sent you out to find Allspark fragments, Starscream." Megatron stepped out into the soft moonlight. "Are you press ganging Blitzwing into doing your work?"

"He is, my lord," the blue faced persona told the truth. "I speak ze truth."

"Hmm, typical." Megatron gazed at his minions. "But I'm afraid I will have to agree with Starscream with something, Blitzwing."

"Vhat?"

"You ought to go out and distance yourselves from us for awhile. You can be… quite annoying at times." He shuddered. "Your crazier side has been singing those blasted Christmas carols for hours on end."

"Yes, you even got Lugnut to hum that one obnoxious tune," Starscream added. "What was it called..? '_Jingle Bells_'?"

"Oh, I don't sing zat bad!" Random pouted. "I can't help it!"

"Well, go sing elsewhere," Megatron rolled his optics. "So, that's why I'm giving you Starscream's original assignment."

The seeker grinned sassily at Blitzwing, pleased that he had won.

"Vipe zat smirk off jour ugly faceplate!" Hothead barked.

"And go out quietly," the Decepticon lord reminded. "You don't need to draw attention to yourself, Blitzwing. I would prefer this to be a covert operation."

"I understand, Lord Megatron," Icy sighed. "I vill do as jou vish, sir."

"Have fun, Blitzwing!" Starscream jeered.

Holding back a fury-fueled punch, the three-faced Decepticon turned into his aerial vehicle. He levitated off the ground and ascended into the brisk and chilly air to begin his search for any wayward shards.

"Another reason why I let him go in your place is because I still don't trust you entirely, Starscream," Megatron resumed when Blitzwing flew farther away. "I was ready to kill you after my body had been restored with that key yet I changed my mind. I will find good use for you besides you being a corpse."

"Megatron, I am but your humble and loyal servant," Starscream bowed lowly. "Earlier, I know I had… compulsive tendencies to try to usurp you but I have learned. I'm not stupid."

"Good, I'm glad you learned your lesson like you claim you had. If you manage to conveniently forget it for one measly moment, it's all over for you, my sneaky little friend…"


	2. Festival of Lights

**Hey guys, thanks for the first reviews/faves/alerts! Judging by what I've been told so far, I guess the rewrite is alright to go on with :) Nothing much to say really, here's chapter 2! Please enjoy!**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 2 Festival of Lights

(the park – 8:05pm)

"Oh, wow!" The brilliance of the lights reflected in Mandy's eyes. "This is gorgeous!" She leaned against her brother's shoulder. "Darien, thanks for suggesting this! This really is so much better than watching crappy Christmas cartoons!"

"I hate being cooped up in the apartment," Darien shrugged. "Besides, I have the two best sisters in the world and I love them to death."

"Such a charmer," Cyndi smiled. "How come you don't have a girlfriend?"

"Because I'm not that handsome. Who wants to kiss a boy with greasy skin and bad body odor?"

"Girls are just blind!" Mandy placed a sweet kiss on his cheek. "You are a sweetie! If you weren't my brother, I'd date you."

The three Preston siblings walked down the cobblestone the path that led deeper into the park. Everything was covered in half a foot in snow yet the whole scene looked beautiful because of the icy splendor. The sky was pitch black yet there were telltale signs of stars in the sky. A crescent moon hung high, casting some light on the sleepy earth.

They walked along for about two minutes until they were standing beneath a trellis that had white Christmas lights wrapped around it. Beyond that trellis, they could see the silhouettes of people who had come to the park for the exact same reason as the trio did. All around them, they were bathed in the soothing and artificial light. The whole aura of the park exuded feelings of sanctity, serenity and carefree-like joy.

"This is beautiful," Amanda stated. She laughed and twirled around as if she was ballerina. "All I need are a pair of glass slippers and a handsome guy."

Cyndi rolled her eyes. She slipped her hands into her bulky dark blue jacket. Passively yet not emotionlessly, the eldest sibling looked around the area, seeing many different displays and sights.

"Oh wow, check it out!" Darien ran over to a particular Christmas light arrangement that was set up in the likeness of Mount Rushmore. "Dude, George Washington looks legendary!"

"You think that's cool?" The middle child ran over to another equally impressive display. "It's the Taj Mahal! If I ever became rich, I'd buy it and refurbish it as a huge mansion!"

"It looks like you're really enthused by this, Mandy," Cynthia walked up behind her. "I thought you were too cool for something like going to a Christmas light festival?"

"I never said that. Look at you, I'm surprised you didn't say you couldn't go because your joints hurt, old woman."

"You're just jealous because I can legally drink."

"I still plan on getting dead drunk on my twenty first birthday…"

"Let me know how that goes."

"Peace and love!" Darien reminded the two. "Stop bickering."

"Darien, you don't understand the meaning of sarcasm," Amanda said. "Cyndi and I never actually fight. The only time we ever argue is when I blast music too loud in my room." She smiled. "Besides, why would I want to fight right here, right now? Everything's so calm and nice."

Cynthia briefly scanned the surrounding displays and sights around them. The other fellow patrons of the illuminated park were walking around with their families and friends with such happiness in their eyes and faces. Children darted around, dashing from place to place, admiring the simple beauty of the atmosphere and the lights. The occasional lovers were holding each other in their arms as they sat down on a bench, sharing a cup of hot chocolate with their significant other. No one seemed to be worrying about the stress and hub of the Christmas spirit. It was almost as if ever so temporarily, they completely forgot that evil or any troubles at all existed. Cyndi briefly believed that too for a grand total of five seconds as she studied everything.

About a hundred feet away, there was a fire pit and people were gathering around it to take refuge from the nippy cold. The flames glowed a deep orange and the wood in the pit became blacker with each second that went by. The people were sitting on benches and stuck close to their tiny group of friends or family members to maintain their warmth.

"What's that smell?" Darien sniffed the air.

"Hey, that's apple cider!" Amanda beamed. "That stuff is perfect for this weather especially when it's cold like this!" She turned to her sister. "Cyndi, Darien and I are going to get some cider." Mandy looked around and found a booth that sold the warm and fruity drink. "Do you want some?"

"Uh, I think I'll pass," Cynthia replied. Amanda had shaken her out of her thoughts and observations.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, don't worry. I'm fine."

"Ugh, this line is long!" Darien whined. "But I can wait for cider for an hour if I have to!"

"Count me in!" Mandy said.

"Alright, you guys go grab a cup a cider," said Cynthia. "I'm going for a little walk around here, explore and see what other displays they have here."

"Don't get lost!" the teenaged boy yelled to his eldest sister as he and Mandy walked over to the line.

Cyndi smiled warmly and giggled privately to herself. She watched her brother and sister wait in line for a few moments. At times, she felt as if she really was their biological mother. The young woman lorded over them in that way and she always frequently caught herself asking them typical "Mom" questions like what time they would be back and what they were going to do with who. The thing that especially startled her was that sometimes Cynthia felt as if her siblings were starting to see her as the new motherly figure.

"_O come, o come, Emmanuel…_"

She could hear Christmas music waft through the air. As if she was in a dream, Cynthia walked along. Her hands were still in her pockets and her head was confidently held up. Some flurries began to fall and one such snowflake fell on the tip of her nose, making a chill run down her spine.

"_Rejoice! Rejoice! O Israel, to you shall come Emmanuel…_"

Cynthia found herself humming to the old tune. She quickly stopped herself so no one could hear her. Warily, she looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was listening in on her. The brunette sighed and continued her trek.

With some sleepiness creeping in on her, she forced her eyes open so she could look at the light arrangements. She paused to admire the classic Nativity scene. Another sight she looked at was a display that was created in the likeness of a giant Santa Claus. She had to admit this was a lot nicer than sitting bored in her apartment, scolding Amanda for blasting her music too loudly on her radio. It even beat reading her earth science textbook that she was set on studying for her upcoming classes.

Cynthia pressed onwards, not really giving much thought to anything or even really processing information for that matter. She felt so at ease, her brain even felt like it had to take a break.

Then she snapped herself out of her little self-induced trance and realized where she was. She saw she was on the outer rim of the park. As a matter of fact, she had passed the last light arrangement at thousand feet ago. Before her, there stood deep, dark and hibernating woodlands. Cyndi shook her head, disbelieving she allowed herself to get sidetracked so mindlessly like that. When she pulled her cellphone out of her pocket, she saw she had been wandering around for the past ten minutes.

"I better get back before Mandy and Darien start to think something happened," she mumbled to herself. "What a way to ruin the trip with fear and uncertainty…"

Cynthia forced her own words back into her mouth when the sparse amount of moonlight revealed something to her. The female walked off the cobblestone path and closer towards the tree line. She knelt down to the earth, not caring at all her jeans were getting cold and wet from the snow.

"Oh my God…"

Furiously, she wanted to discredit her own eyes. But she knew what she was seeing was definitely real. There was a giant footprint in the snow. Immediately, Cynthia suspected who or what had made this anomaly.

She lifted her eyes up from the footprint and into the wintry woods. To her dismay and rising fear, she couldn't root out anything from that darkness. Slowly, she stood back up on her feet. Her head turned towards the north where the Christmas light festival was taking place. Now, all that peace and safety seemed to have evaporated. Replacing those things were terror and obscurity.

"I must be hallucinating, somehow, someway," she whispered to herself. "This can't be a footprint belonging to one of those inorganic creatures. Can it?" She bit her lower lip. "I hope not."

Then she heard a voice. Or maybe even voices.

"_Oh, jou better vatch out, jou better not pout I'm telling jou vhy: Santa Claus is coming to town!_" Random sang jollily. "_He sees jou vhen jour sleeping! He knows vhen jour avake..!_"

"Ugh, shut up!" Hothead demanded. "Zis is supposed to be a quiet and secretive search!"

"How about ve all pipe down?" Icy suggested. "Let's not try to draw attention..."

Gasping for breath, she instinctively dashed behind a tree to hide herself from the unseen presence. Cynthia threw herself around the trunk of a large old oak tree. Her heart thumped in her chest and even though it was twenty degrees out, sweat began to leak out her pores. Her lower lip trembled and her fingers felt like they were going into an epileptic fit as they tried to grip the trunk. She shut her eyes and tried to steel herself. In all her life, she never wanted God to listen to her prayers so adamantly.

"This can't be…"

Cyndi felt eerily tempted to peek from her hiding spot and try to find whatever it was that was with her in the dark. All she needed to do was muster up the bravery to do such a thing. Currently, all she wanted to do was hide and pray it wouldn't find her.

Suddenly, she remembered that there two types of the alien robots in Detroit. She heard the majority about them through the news but Cyndi herself had never seen or met one in reality. Right off the bat, she knew about the five inorganics who worked to protect the city were called the Autobots. Cynthia recalled the other faction was called the Decepticons. But besides knowing the faction names, she didn't know the names of any of the robots themselves. If she had sunlight on her side, she figured maybe she could see whoever it was.

"Red is Autobot," she thought. "Purple is Decepticon… Or is it the other way around? Crap."

Cynthia could feel the ground beneath her feet tremble a little. She slapped her hand against her mouth. Her whole body was paralyzed with tension and terror. She dared not to breathe, move, think or even blink in this harrowing predicament.

"Did I just hear somezhing?" Random wondered, scratching his helm.

"No, it's nozhing," Hothead asserted.

"I zought I heard a little mouse squeaking!" The pumpkin face laughed.

"It doesn't matter," said Icy. "Let's just get back to finding zhose Allspark fragments."

"Run, run, run, run!" Cyndi shut her eyes so tightly. "Why can't I run? I'm going to die if I won't run!"

Still, she had no clue of her company's identity. Right now, Cynthia felt so foolish for not paying greater attention to the news regarding these intergalactic metal titans.

She looked off to the direction where humanity was. The lights seemed so far away and impossible to get to now. Cyndi felt some tears coming to her eyes and she began to believe these were her final moments.

"Just run! Take a chance!"

Cynthia took off all the while fumbling through the deep snow in the process. Five seconds later, she could feel a tremor. A ruby light shone over her.

"Stop right zhere!" Icy ordered her.

Giving up and accepting her inevitable, Cynthia fell to her knees. Her back was facing him and she dared not to face her killer. Her whole body was shaking at this point. With great effort, she put her hands behind her head.

"I give up," she said almost inaudibly.

She could feel him coming closer through the tremors she could feel in the earth. The luminescence of his ruby optics was the light that shrouded around her form and as he got closer, it got brighter.

"T-Tell me what you are," she stuttered. "Which one of them are you?"

"Vhat do jou mean, Human?" Icy didn't understand what she was speaking of.

"Autobot or Decepticon…"

"Decepticon."

"No!" she screamed mentally. "This can't end like this!"

Before she knew it, Cynthia found herself being plucked up from the ground. It all happened so quickly, she barely had time to process the information and scream. In a few seconds, she was face to face with Blitzwing.

"Oh my God..!" she whimpered. "No!"

The triple changer dropped her into his awaiting servo. Helplessly, she sat in his palm. He tapped a finger on his chin.

"Curious," he said, "I have never observed a Human female zis close before."

"It's all an accident and I'm sorry!" she rambled. "I was taking a stroll and admiring all the lights! Look, I'll turn around and walk away like nothing ever happened! I'll forget about the whole thing by morning!"

"Aww, look at her!" Random gushed. "She's so scared and tiny!"

Cynthia visibly recoiled when she saw his faces swap.

"Please, let me go!" she pleaded. "I promise I won't speak a word of this to anyone!"

"Shut up!" Hothead demanded. "Jour blubbering is annoying me!"

Promptly, Cynthia shut herself up. She curled her legs up to her chest. The frightened organic averted her eyes from his face and shut them tightly. Even with her legs folded so close to her body, she could feel her knees wobble like an ill-structured building in an earthquake.

Blitzwing eyed her inquisitively, a little surprised to see that he had managed to catch a Human female. He wasn't expecting anyone to cross paths with him whether they were organic or Cybertronian on this quiet and humdrum search for Allspark fragments. In a way, he was somewhat relieved he found her instead of a defensive Autobot.

"Jou vere spying on me!" Random cackled. "Vhat are jou up to, little organic?"

"Nothing!" Quickly, Cyndi looked back at him. "I was just talking a walk! Look at me! Do I look like the type of person who'd go out and spy on giant robots?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Icy pondered.

"I'm freaking out here! I am so not asking for any of this!"

"Zhen perhaps zhere is nozhing to fear from a cowardly femme… I'm vasting my time. But, before I let jou go, I have one question to ask."

"What?"

"Have jou noticed any peculiar looking gem shards?" Blitzwing put it in that particular way because he knew she didn't know what the Allspark was or what its fragments looked like. "I'm looking for zem."

"I'm sorry, I can't say that I have… Am I going to die?"

"Vhat use do jou have?" Hothead asked in a demeaning tone. "I knew some organic femme vouldn't know about ze Allspark fragments."

"I haven't seen anything. I don't even know what the Hell an Allspark is! I don't think I want to know or care what it is!"

"But if jou did know, vould jou give ze fragments to me?" Random asked innocently.

"Absolutely. I don't want any trouble. I just want to live!"

The red and black pumpkin face laughed at her. Cynthia sat flabbergasted and horrified by what was happening around her.

"Now, don't tell ze Autobots or anyone else I vas here!" Blitzwing shook a finger at her. "Can it be our little secret?"

"I'm awesome at keeping secrets," Cyndi made herself sound convincing.

"If jou value jour life, jou vill keep zat secret," the fiery persona reminded her. "It's not smart to break promises vith me."

"My bowels are ready to bust loose and I want to live! I think I can keep this a secret… Can you keep a promise for me and let me go, please?"

"Zhere is no sense to converse vith jou anymore," Icy concluded. "If jou vill keep jour promise, zhen I vill repay jou."

To her greatest joy, Blitzwing lowered his servo to the ground. She jumped out of his servo, overjoyed to be standing in the snow. Her tension rolled off her shoulders and Cyndi felt as if she was in a hot tub.

"Thank you!" She sounded and felt absolutely euphoric.

Icy's stoic visage maintained its debonair yet austere expression. The triple changer observed her for a few moments as if she was a peculiar species of insect. His stare unnerved her a little but she tried to wall up what discomfort she could.

"It vould be vise for jou to valk avay now," he spoke, breaking the unsettling silence. "Farevell, Human."

Instead of walking, Cyndi sprinted like an Olympic athlete. She ran like she never had before mainly because she had never been in a situation as dire and potentially deadly as this. For a moment, she felt like she became one with wind in her flight to the lights. All that mattered was getting away from Blitzwing.

(A few minutes later…)

"Darien, do you see her anywhere?" Amanda stood up on the tips of her toes to look around the area. "Where'd she go?"

"I saw her go deeper into the park," Darien replied. "She's been gone for fifteen minutes or so."

"Should we call her? I know she has her phone on hand."

"Yeah, we better. This isn't like her. She'd never stray too far from us." The boy shuddered. "Come to think of it, I don't like it when she's gone for too long too."

"Oh, she's fine." Mandy sipped some of her apple cider. "She carries a can of mace in her purse sometimes."

"What if some guy confronts her with a gun or some other weapon?"

"Yeah, I'm calling her right now."

"I'm here, I'm here!"

Both Amanda and Darien jumped when they heard their big sister call out to them. They lifted their heads up, seeing Cyndi still running at a swift rate to them. Her face was flushed red and she clearly had this panicked look on her face. As soon as her siblings saw these signs, they became concerned for her.

"Oh my God, Cynthia!" Amanda exclaimed.

"Sis, what's up?" Darien sounded serious and uncommonly solemn for his nature.

Cyndi halted in her tracks before she could tackle either of her siblings to the ground in her fervor. She placed her hands on her knees and panted heavily. Her brown hair was matted with droplets of sweat. Warily, she glanced off to the side, seeing a few people look over at her in curiosity.

"Nothing, I just got really spooked that's all," she let out a very unconvincing and weak laugh. "I walked around in the park away from the Christmas light attractions and some stupid kids were playing jokes on me in the woods."

"Where are those punks at?" The Preston boy cracked his knuckles.

"Cyndi, you look legitimately terrified," Mandy asserted. "You look 'ohmygawd-it's-Freddy-Kreuger!' scared. What's going on?"

"I overreacted, that's all," Cyndi lied. "You know I have the tendency to do that at times. I heard guys giggling and they were pulling pranks on me in the dark. They were throwing stuff at me and making noises. I was a big baby, and that's that."

"Well you must've got really spooked to leave your purse behind," Darien said.

Cynthia's heart was ready to stop palpitating. She could almost feel her pupils dilate.

"What?" she breathed sharply. "My purse? You're a filthy, rotten liar!"

She couldn't feel the strap of her purse dig into her shoulder. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. Her jaw dropped.

"You must've dropped it when you got scared!" Mandy said. "Come on, we better go get it before those goons in the woods steal your money and other stuff!"

"No!" Cynthia practically screamed. "We'll get it in the morning!"

"Sis, you've gone nuts!" Darien proclaimed. "We got to get your stuff now!"

"Leave it!"

"Cyndi, you're acting hysterical!"

"No, Darien, I am not!"

"We're not leaving your purse in the woods for everyone in the world to see," Amanda said steadfastly. "And if those idiots in the woods are still there, I will personally rearrange their grills!"

"Guys, it's no big deal! It's just my driver's license and two credit cards!"

"Plus the car keys, your mace, your set of apartment keys and God knows what else. We're getting your stuff now."

(the woods)

Amanda held out her cellphone and used the light it produced as a makeshift flashlight. She walked along carefully, on the lookout for anything suspicious.

"Hey, punks!" she called out. "Did you scare my sister?"

"Mandy, please!" Cynthia begged.

Cynthia was being restrained by Darien. Even though there was a six year age difference (with him being sixteen and she being twenty two respectively) between the two, he was taller and stronger than her. She still put somewhat of a fight but the boy was able to hold her close to him.

"Darien, for God's sake, let me go!" Cyndi demanded. "I think I know where I dropped my purse!"

"You just have to say 'please' and calm down." He shook his head. "Sis, you're really freaking me out."

"PLEASE!"

"Sheesh, okay."

He released her. Cynthia ripped Amanda's cellphone out of her hand and walked off alone. Her heart was in her throat and her legs felt like they were made out of water. She was terrified to be at the sight of the encounter that only occurred a few minutes earlier but there she was. The strange Decepticon could still be prowling around there as far as she knew. Not only that, she was endangering her siblings by being there. Things just couldn't get worse…

It didn't take Cyndi long to find her purse. Some of the purse's contents were spilt out onto the snow. Hastily, she threw them back in. Just as hurriedly, she jogged over to Amanda and Darien. She shoved the phone back to Mandy.

"You do have everything?" Mandy asked.

"Yeah, let's just get," Cyndi said.

"Can we at least stay around for a little while longer and see the rest of the lights?" Darien questioned. "We didn't come here for nothing."

"We can stay as long as we get out of these woods…"

"Where're the guys who were stalking you?" The blonde girl was set on seeking them out and punishing them.

"They're gone now. Now come on, I'm getting uneasy standing around here."

"Come on, Mumzy," teased Darien.

Cynthia stopped in her footsteps and glanced over her shoulders. Her eyes scanned the woods, on the lookout for anything otherworldly or strange. She squinted, looking for a tell-tale ruby glow that hovered thirty feet into the trees.

"Farewell, Decepticreep," she said within herself.


	3. Ensnared Conscious

**Sorry about the late update everyone. Life's been in my way! Thanks for the reviews, favorites and alerts too. You guys rock... :D Enjoy the update!**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 3 Ensnared Conscious 

(the next morning – Preston residence: 9:00am)

The coffee tasted like shit. But she didn't care.

Cynthia poured the whole pot down the kitchen drain. She lazily set it down on the counter and yawned. Sleepily, her feet shuffled across the tiled floor and she walked over to the refrigerator. The woman pulled out a carton of milk and drank straight out of it. After taking two gulps, she placed it back into the refrigerator.

When she closed the fridge door, she caught a quick glance of her reflection in a little mirror magnet. Cyndi shook her head and looked at her visage.

"I look like I was in the trenches on the Western Front for a month," she mumbled to herself.

Her appearance was less than flattering and quite haggard. There were huge dark bags under her eyes. Her shoulder length brown hair looked like a grizzled mess. Her skin looked dull and unhealthy. In short, it appeared as if she had gotten a horrible night's sleep. That just so happened to be the case.

She had stayed at the light festival until ten with her siblings. However, Cyndi couldn't enjoy her time and very often, she caught herself looking over her shoulder for any signs of the inorganic giant she met last night. Thankfully, she didn't see him for the rest of the night but nonetheless, her whole time since meeting him was tense and unpleasant.

She was well aware her siblings were curious about her encounter in the dark park. Cynthia revealed nothing to them because she didn't doubt Blitzwing would hunt her down and kill her if she did tell them about the encounter. Yet at the back of her mind, she was extremely tempted to call the police so that they could send the Autobots to apprehend the 'Con.

Cyndi's sleep was harassed by nightmares and she had only slept for approximately three hours. She tossed and turned the whole night, she felt too cold and then too hot. Her mind ran wild and her pulse would race every single time she thought of him.

In one of the nightmares she had, she died by Blitzwing's hand. The whole dream was very brief but as violent as it was brief. Cynthia recalled being in a dark forest with dead, white trees. She heard and saw the trees being ripped out of the earth with their mighty and gnarly roots exposed. The fear and apprehension she experienced in the nightmare was so real, she could've sworn it was actually all real. His giant foot then descended from the sky and gorily crunched her into the ground in bloody and grim splendor.

From that nightmare, she woke up sweating and with a real sense of mortification in her soul. She pondered to herself, who wouldn't be disturbed by this?

Cynthia moved out of the kitchen sluggishly like a zombie. Amanda and Darien were still asleep and she was the sole one awake in their apartment. At times, she liked the quiet and calm of early morning when they were still slumbering. She sat down on the couch and turned on the TV.

"When they wake up, I have to let it all go," she thought. "I can't let them know it's still bugging me badly. I got to be strong in front of them. I really scared them last night and I don't want them calling Mom and Dad, telling them they think I'm becoming mentally unstable." Cyndi shook her head. "No way. I'm not going home now. Or to some loony bin… Mom and Dad wanted me out of the house and I finally took flight. I'm not letting them think I'm some weakling. Nothing's stopping me!" She smiled. "I just got to give myself a pep talk and I'll be fine! I feel better already…"

"_…Yes, it would be wise for all the citizens of Detroit to be wary of the Decepticon presence that is here…_"

Cynthia looked earnestly at the TV, seeing that the leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime, was being interviewed by a news crew. She leaned forward, her knees pressing into the coffee table.

"_There have been some sightings here and there of them,_" the young Prime went on, "_that have been witnessed by the citizens. My team and I would greatly appreciate any information anyone has about possible activity the Decepticons are engaged in unbeknownst to us. We're all in this together because the Decepticons are out to destroy both Humans and Autobots no matter what._"

"Cynthia Rose Preston, you are one lucky lady," she said to herself. "You almost died last night."

She looked at the cordless phone that was sitting on the other side of the coffee table. Again, she wanted to call the police about what happened last night in the park. Yet once more, she was repelled by the promise she was forced to make. Not only that, he had let her go and she didn't want to incite his wrath by betraying him.

"I'm letting that freak off the hook… And I never did get his name." She sighed. "The right thing would be to call the cops… But he'll kill me and most likely Darien and Mandy too."

She turned off the news, feeling discouraged and ashamed of herself. Cyndi ran her fingers through her hair and sighed heavily. Her eyes shut and in that darkness, she could see the jack-o-lantern coming at her.

"Get out of my head!" she hissed. "You haven't traumatized me that badly!" Cyndi stood up and walked to her room. "I'm going to forget about last night and move on. My life's not stopping because you were poised to kill me. Worse things have happened to people and they moved on." She sat down on her bed. "I'm alive and I'll never see you again: that's something to be really happy about."

(An hour later – 10:00am)

"Hey, bumpkin!"

Cynthia threw a pillow at the figure that was hiding beneath the bed covers. Amanda shifted beneath the blankets and groaned.

"Mandy, I'm going to the mall to do some last minute shopping," said Cyndi. "I just wanted to let you know."

"Cyndi, I'm sleeping, go do whatever you want…" she grumbled. "I don't have work for a little over a week… Please don't wake me up until that vacation is done."

"What do you want for Christmas? You never did tell me."

"Surprise me, Cyndi."

"Yeah that helps. Don't be surprised if I get you a few CDs for Christmas… Or an old time Disney movie for that matter."

"Okay, that sounds great." Amanda rolled over onto her side and curled up. "Happy shopping."

"Alright, tell Darien I'll be back hopefully before two or three, depending on how horrible the traffic is and whatnot. There's some food in the kitchen so make whatever you want. I'll seeya later."

"Bye…" The blonde yawned. "I better be able to get back to bed."

(the mall – 11:10am)

Cynthia looked at the CD case in her left hand. It was a Lady Gaga album and in the right hand, she held another CD that was Shania Twain. She wracked her brain trying to figure out if Amanda had either of these albums or if she even wanted them at all. Frustrated, she sighed and shook her head.

"I know she's obsessed with Lady Gaga but I don't think she has this disc…" she thought. "She likes every single genre style of music under the sun and that includes country." Cynthia placed down the Lady Gaga CD. "Yeah, she's getting Shania Twain for Christmas from me. It'd be nice to listen to something instead of Lady Gaga on that damn radio of hers."

Her cellphone rang obnoxiously. A few people glanced at her when they recognized the ringtone: it was '_Ain't Nothing Gonna Break my Stride_' by Matthew Wilder.

"I need to change this thing a.s.a.p…" she grumbled, a bit embarrassed she allowed it to ring so loudly.

Cyndi fumbled through her purse in order to answer and silence her phone. She managed to grab it yet she forgot to check the caller ID. The young woman pressed the 'talk' button and held the device up to her ear.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hi, sweetheart."

It was her father, Robert Preston.

"Hey, Daddy," she smiled a tiny smile, "what's up?"

"I just wanted to enjoy a nice little morning conversation with my eldest child," he answered. "That's all. I called your apartment and I got a very sleepy greeting from your brother… You haven't let him out partying in the streets all night have you, Cynthia?"

"Of course not. You know how kids are… They're always up late watching TV and hanging out. Darien, Mandy and I were together the entire evening so I know he didn't go out partying and end up coming home smashed. He's actually a weird kid because he hates all kinds alcohol."

"Well done, Cynthia. You know, I was at first a bit wary of letting your brother and sister live with you when you went off to college a year and a half ago. I thought you couldn't live up to that challenge." He laughed softly. "But you've made me proud, honey. Aren't you glad you decided to leave home and go to college?"

"Despite the fact I've left home for college at twenty one, I guess that's okay. Better late than never…"

"It's for the best, Cyndi… Anyway, Darien told me you went off to the mall for some last minute Christmas shopping."

"Yes, I just got a Shania Twain album for Mandy. I'm still trying to figure out what I should give Darien though."

"Applications to shops, fast food joints or whatever else you can get… That boy needs a job."

Cyndi walked over to the cash register to purchase the CD. She silently mouthed 'hello' to the cashier as she placed the disc on the counter. Then she dug through her purse with one hand.

"Dad, be nice to Darien," Cyndi said gently. "He's trying to get into street magic and I think he ought to go for it."

"There's no merit in it," Robert condemned.

"He doesn't want to be lawyer like you. According to you, a lake ecologist isn't meritorious either but you've allowed me to pursue that career."

"Darien's my only boy. I only worry about him."

"Uh-huh. He's the baby of the family so no wonder… Say, Dad, what do you want for Christmas? I know to not get you a tie or else you'll hang yourself with it."

Robert laughed.

"Anything but a tie, Cyndi," he said. "That and socks."

"Okay, I'll figure it out then," Cyndi found her wallet at last and pulled it out. "Can I call you after I get my shopping done? I'm determined to get what I can done today so I don't have to rush out again."

"That's fine. Shop well, Cynthia."

"Hi, Baby!" Cynthia's mother, Helen, screamed in the background. "I love you! I get to see you and my other babies within a matter of weeks!"

"Your mother is dying to come down. We're still coming over to Detroit on the twenty third."

"That's fine," Cyndi nodded. "I love you, Dad. Extend my love and greetings to Mom."

"Love you too, honey. Bye."

She disconnected the call and focused her full attention on the cashier.

"Sorry about that," Cyndi apologized.

"No worries, ma'am," the man said blandly. "That'll be nineteen ninety nine, please."

"Okay then…"

Cynthia grabbed a crisp twenty dollar bill out of her wallet and handed it over to the cashier. He ran up the transaction and was preparing to hand her change back to her.

She glanced at an inner compartment in her wallet while she was waiting to receive her change. There was a transparent strip of plastic that covered a slot in the wallet. In that slot, she kept her driver's license which could be seen clearly through that plastic. But it wasn't in its proper spot.

Panic balled up in the pit of her stomach yet she kept it concealed for the time being. Cynthia perused her wallet, believing she absentmindedly placed it in some other space in there. When she discovered it wasn't there, she began to search her purse.

The cashier watched her increasingly desperate search with the same blank look on his face. He leaned heavily against the counter, tapping the penny on it.

"Miss, your change and receipt," he said idly.

Cyndi was ready to have an anxiety attack. Her breathing became ponderous when she saw her driver's license was missing. She never took it out of the vicinity of her purse. Her wallet always stayed in there and so did the license since it was always in that wallet.

"Uh, keep the penny," she said waveringly. "Thanks."

She quickly grabbed the bag containing the receipt and the CD. Cynthia hurried out of the media store and out into the mall. To catch herself from falling over in panic, she hustled over to a bench and sat down in it.

"Oh, God," she thought. "Please don't tell me I somehow lost my license at the park when I ran into that Decepticon. I never ever take my license out of my wallet… He must've went through my wallet when I dropped my purse and…" Her eyes grew to the size of saucers. "HE HAS MY LICENSE!"

He knew her full name. He knew her address. He knew all he needed to know about her.

"He's got me under his thumb good..." Cyndi ran her hands through her hair and shut her eyes tight. "Now I know for sure that if I decided to report my encounter to the authorities, he'd be able to find me too and then eat me or something." She began to shake from the chills she suddenly felt. "God, he knows who I am and where I live! This is a nightmare! I have no choice now… I have to shut up or die. Mom, Dad, Mandy and Darien might have to pay for my action too if I decide to call the cops."

With all her might, she wished her driver's license might actually be at home and not within a Decepticon's metal hands. However, Cyndi didn't recall taking it out of her wallet at all yesterday. She was more than certain the triple changer had it.

"I can't lose my cool. I'll just say I lost it and I'll go get a new one issued as soon as I get done with shopping." The organic female sighed laboriously. "I'm doomed."

(Two hours later – 12:30pm)

Cynthia nervously scanned the crowds of people that walked past her. She claimed her own table in an isolated area of the food court. In her left hand, she tightly clenched a plastic cup of hot chocolate. At her feet, there were some shopping bags that were filled with the loot of her conquest at the mall.

She had completed what she meant to accomplish and she was officially finished with her Christmas shopping. However, her license continued to remain missing even after she dumped her purse out, dissected her wallet and nearly dismantled her car. Cyndi called Amanda and asked her to look for the missing item and her worst fears were confirmed when her sister did indeed say the license was not in the apartment.

"A giant robot stole my driver's license," she told herself. "Wait until my parents hear about that. Of all the rotten luck! Why me? Honestly, what did I do to deserve this? I think I'm a fairly decent individual."

Ever since she discovered her license had disappeared, she had felt edgy and extremely tense. Again, like last night after her encounter with Blitzwing, she found herself looking over her shoulder often. Cynthia felt as if she was being spied upon and it made her skin crawl. It was as if she believed a million invisible security cameras were watching her every move. More than anything else, she wished she was in a dark and enclosed space where no one could find her.

"I'm going to continue living my life and pretend like nothing happened," she decided. "As long as we never cross paths again, I'll be fine. I'll never tell anyone about what happened or report my incident to the cops. Hopefully, he'll keep his end of the bargain and leave me be. The last thing I need is…"

"Hey, scaredy-cat!"

Cynthia looked up from gazing at the melted marshmallows in her hot chocolate. She wrinkled her nose and studied the scene around her, wondering who said that.

"Over here!"

The young woman yelped out loud when she realized the voice came from behind her. Cyndi gasped a little when she turned around in her seat. Her eyes locked with a very handsome man's. She began to blush a little.

The man was quite tall: he easily was over six feet tall. He was wearing beige cargo pants, black boots and a purple and black checkered polo shirt. To protect himself from the chill of the December evening, he was wearing a black polar fleece jacket. His dirty blonde hair was kempt and shiny. His physique was manly and muscular but not grotesquely beefy. To top it all off, this fine specimen of a male had a pair of bright and beautiful ruby eyes.

"Ca-can I help you?" Cyndi coughed.

"Jou know who I am!" Random Blitzwing smiled at her. "I just vanted to say 'hi'!"


	4. The Man with the Ruby Eyes

**Hey all! :D I'm glad you all liked chapter 3 so much and weren't expecting what happened in the ending. I promise it gets juicier though! I just started my fall semester but I will try to update when I can as I juggle between work, fan fics and college. Thanks for the reviews and enjoy chapter 4!**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 4 The Man with the Ruby Eyes

"Uh, I don't know you," Cynthia laughed nervously. Her hands were shaking vigorously. "Do you know me somehow?"

"Of course jou do!" he asserted. I saw jou at ze park last night!"

Stealthily, her right hand reached into her purse. Her fingers searched for a particular item hidden in that purse. Cyndi was ready to use her pepper spray if things got ugly.

"I don't believe I do remember seeing you," she corrected. "You must have me mistaken for someone else."

"I know jour face vell," Icy replaced Random. In this Human disguise, there was no face swapping yet their voice tones were distinct and distinguishable. "Zhere is no mistaking jou."

"I said, I don't know you, creep! Now, get the Hell outta here before I pepper spray your ass! I won't hesitate to kick you in the spot where the sun doesn't shine too!"

"It von't vork because…"

"Wait a moment…" Cynthia narrowed her eyes. "You have an accent and I hear you speak in different voices." She shook her head in disbelief. "Did we really meet at the lights festival last night? Please tell me we didn't!"

"Unfortunately, yes," said Hothead.

"Ve most certainly did meet," Icy spoke the truth.

Cyndi wanted a magical lightning bolt to shoot out from the heavens and strike her dead. All she could do was sit there in her seat, constricted with fear once more. It hurt to even bring air into her lungs. Her face was almost white washed and hollow due to the shock of this second chance encounter.

Inviting himself, Blitzwing sat down in the chair next to her. Her eyes flitted over to his direction and he bore this bored expression on his face. He cocked his head to the side. Then he showed off a large smile.

"Jou don't look so good," Random observed.

"I think I'm gonna have diarrhea," Cyndi almost cried.

"Oh, zat's not good! I heard zat's a really nasty zhing for jou organics to experience!" He giggled. "But it vould be so funny to see jou ruin jour clozhing!"

"Look..." Cynthia was almost speechless. "Mr. Robot can you just leave me alone? I feel like I'm going to have an epic meltdown!"

"Hey, ze name is Blitzving!" Hothead said sternly. "Remember it!"

She took a moment to realize he was saying 'Blitzwing' and it only sounded like 'Blitzving' because of his accent. Cynthia nodded her head slowly and twirled a piece of hair around her thumb. Blitzwing… She had his name at last.

"Okay, sorry," she cringed. Cynthia looked at his body, clearly seeing he was a man and not a machine. She was greatly perplexed by this mystery. "How… How did you do this?"

"A holoform!" Random said in a surprised tone. "Sometimes, I like to valk around disguised as a Human but I'm really not one of zem! Jou organics are so easy to fool!"

"A holoform? A disguise? It looks so real…"

"Zat's because it's produced by technology beyond organic comprehension," Icy said stiffly. "A holoform is merely a projection, an illusion. Can jou understand zat much?"

"Um, yeah. What brings you here?" Cynthia shook her head and paused. "Let me rephrase that: if we aren't supposed to cross paths again, why are we talking?"

"Random's like zat," Hothead rumbled. "I vas minding my own business until he took over and decided to see jou."

"I've been spying on jou!" Random giggled. "I like to do zat! Vhen I saw jou vere here at zis mall, I decided to vatch jou!"

Cynthia felt her stomach turn to rot. Nervously, she laughed.

"I don't know whether to be frightened or flattered…" She cleared her throat. "So you're here to study my species? Am I right?"

"Yes," said Icy. "I must say jour species is a very busy one. Jour kind reminds me of a certain insect: ze ant."

"Thanks… I guess that's a good compliment."

"Jou know, I have somezhing zat belongs to jou, Cynzhia Rose Preston."

Cyndi nearly leapt out of her seat. Despite her fear, she leaned in closer to him.

"You have my driver's license," she said lowly. "When I dropped it, you took it out of my wallet."

"Correct." Blitzwing crossed his legs and tilted back in his chair slightly. "I must say I needed to know a little more about jou, Cynzhia."

"Why? Do you intend to hold me and my loved ones hostage or something?"

He laughed at her question.

"Vhy vould I hold jou hostage?" he wondered. "I have no desire or reason."

"I don't know," Cyndi said in an exasperated voice. "You could want me for any number of reasons."

"How about no." Hothead was getting a little incensed. "I have ozhers zhings to vorry about razher zhan trying to kidnap or hold jou for ransom."

"I just hope that's the truth… I'm somewhat relieved to hear that." She swallowed a lump in her throat. "I would like to have my driver's license back. On Earth, many people need one to function."

The Human holoform smiled grimly at her. Cynthia had this unexplainable urge to jump over her table and run off screaming into the throngs. The organs in her body felt like they were being spoilt as long as that evil looking grin remained on his face. She leaned back in her seat to maintain some distance between them. Instead, Blitzwing drew closer as she backed off.

"True…" Icy's voice sounded wickedly smooth. "I do have vhat jou need. I vill give it to jou if jou promise to me again jou vill not speak of our encounter. My fellow Decepticons and I have been orchestrating some covert operations in and around ze city."

"I don't have a choice either way," she sounded helpless and despondent.

"To a fool, jou have two choices, Ms. Preston. However, I am under ze impression jou're smarter zhan a fool. Hypozetically, jou could report me to ze Autobots and have zem set up an ambush for me ze next time I go out."

"But jou may forget I'm tougher zhan zhose five Autobots combined!" boasted Hothead. "I'm no pushover! I am a Decepticon!"

"And vhen I do escape from ze Autobots," said Random, "I vill have to pay jou a visit!"

Cynthia very easily got a mental image of him literally ripping apart the complex with his bare hands. She could just as easily picture him squishing her like an insect with a literal iron fist.

"I get it," Cyndi said somberly. "I'll keep my mouth shut. I won't report last night's incident or even today's encounter with you…" She slowly began to reach for her purse and shopping bags. "I'll be off and we'll both go on our merry ways."

"Sit," Hothead commanded. "Jou vant zat stupid piece of garbage, don't jou?"

"My license? Yes, please."

He stuck his hand into his polar fleece jacket's pocket. A second later, he pulled out Cyndi's driver's license, completely intact. Then he handed it to her. Instead, Cynthia sat gawking at her license, still in shock and apprehension over the reality she was talking with such an evil creature.

"Jou vant it?" Blitzwing tapped his finger impatiently on the table. "Come on, don't stall."

Hesitantly, Cynthia reached her hand out and grabbed it from his hold. The tips of her fingers grazed up against his hand: it was frigid and felt like she was touching a corpse. Cyndi visibly shuddered as she touched his hand and Blitzwing saw this.

"Zhere is no life in zhis holoform," said Icy. "Zhere is no sound zat Humans call a 'heart beat' in me and I feel cold to zem. I can generate enough energy to make zis form more solid upon will to fool ozhers. However, I cannot maintain zis disguise for long."

"That's… That's interesting," Cyndi said, sitting back down in her seat. "Is that alright if I ask you a question?"

"It depends upon vhat it is exactly but jou may."

"Why do you come amongst my kind? Do we intrigue you?"

"Vell, since I am on zis planet, I have decided to study ze most intelligent and dominant residents of zis planets in my spare time: Humans. I must say jour species is a curious and an industrious one. I compared Humans to ants and I mean it as a compliment." He smirked. "However, it can be quite demeaning too."

"I guess it can be safe to assume you don't hate my species entirely so that's some relief… I heard enough about what you and your other Decepticon friends think about my people."

Blitzwing folded his hands together.

"Is zat so?" Icy sounded amused. "Tell me vhat jou have heard, Cynzhia."

Cynthia bit her lip. Sighing, she shook her head and preferred not to look at him in the eyes for a few seconds.

"I feel very uncomfortable talking to you," she said, being blatantly honest. "You can see it evidently. I know what you are and I know what I see, a man, is a lie. We aren't supposed to be discussing anything."

"No, tell me vhat jou have heard about me and ze ozhers," Hothead urged. He was grinning and he seemed to be enjoying this too much. "I'm eager to know."

"You and your buddies are evil. You want to destroy Earth and the Autobots who are protecting us. You only see Humans as target practice."

"And who told jou zat?" Icy asked. "Ze Autobots?"

"Yes and the news. I've seen what you've done to some areas of Detroit: you've utterly destroyed it. You have a total disregard for life. Decepticons only care about themselves. Decepticons have no honor. Decepticons deceive… Decepticons are evil."

"I can be a very nice Decepticon vhen I vant to be!" said Random. "Jou're a scaredy cat!"

Cynthia's fear was being dissolved steadily as she was being exposed to him. In fear's place, her anger took over. An enemy of her species was socializing with her. More than anything else, she wanted to claw his eyes out if she could.

"No shit," she growled. "I am scared. But anymore, you're just making me very angry. I want to be left alone to my life. I will keep my promise because I want to live but I would heartily appreciate if you backed off too. Best of luck to you, Blitzwing." Cyndi grabbed her belongings. "_Au revoir_, scum."

"I have no honor, Cynzhia?" Icy's tone became even more serious than usual. "Jou better zhink twice, femme."

"Oh, please. I hope you rot in a junkyard forever."

"I have promised to release jou and jou have gone off free two times, Ms. Preston. I have no honor? I spared jour live vhen I had absolutely no obligation to. I zhink jou are acting so bold and hostile right now is because I'm not before jou in my true shape. Jou'd be as meek and veak as vhen ve first met ozhervise." His expression contorted to that of disgust. "No vonder vhy I don't communicate vith Humans: I'm vasting my time. Jou are ze first Human I've given mercy to and zhis is how I'm repaid: vith indignant mannerisms."

"'Indignant mannerisms'? You are a..!"

He slapped his hand across her mouth as their argument began to escalate in order to prevent her from saying a certain word. Cynthia thought about biting his hand but decided not to at the last minute. Blitzwing kept his hand over her mouth. The organic could only glare at him.

"Ve don't vant a crowd, do ve?" Random asked.

He removed his hand and ran a finger across her cheek. Cynthia smacked his hand away, disgusted by this slight gesture. Then she grinned in a warped way at him.

"Oh no," she almost whispered. "Heaven forbid that. I should call the Autobots on you and report this but I'm going to show you I'm not weak and going to have someone else take care of things for me."

"No, jou're just a coward," Hothead proclaimed. "Not only zat, I do know vhere jou live…"

Chills ran down Cyndi's spine at these truths. It felt as if she had been slapped brutally in the face continuously.

"Jou don't vant me to treat jou as an exception to jour kind?" said Icy. "So be it."

"For jour sake, jou better hope ve never meet again," Hothead warned. "Now, jou're just anozher insect to squash if jou get in my vay."

"Then what was I before?" Cynthia asked in a smarmy tone. "What makes me so different from other people, huh? I'm not tall! I don't look like Venus in mortal form! I'm not some world famous physicist! Why do you have to pester me?"

"I don't know," Random shrugged. "Zat's a mystery. Ve just happened to be in ze same places at ze same time."

"Yeah, that's my luck. Goodbye, Decepticreep."

Gathering up all her items and bags, Cyndi promptly rose out of her seat. She even abandoned her cup of hot chocolate that she was drinking earlier. Quickly, she walked away from the table, ignoring the small crowd of people that were silently watching she and Blitzwing argue.

When she walked about a hundred feet off, she hid behind a corner. Then she peeked around that bend to see what Blitzwing was doing. To her astonishment, Cynthia saw about two giddy twenty-something year old girls go over to his side as he still sat at the table.

"She's got ice in her veins to yell at such a handsome man like you," one said. "She doesn't know what she's thinking, hot stuff."

"Was she your girlfriend or something?" the other said. "If that's the case, I'll be more than happy to be your new girlfriend…" She laughed a throaty laugh. "Especially tonight."

The second girl inched closer to his side and placed a hand on his shoulder. Blitzwing spun around, knocking his chair down. Angrily, he slugged her in her nose. Blood gushed from her now broken nose and the girl collapsed to the ground like a bundle of rocks. She was unconscious as soon as she hit the ground.

"Don't touch me!" Hothead roared. "Get jour filzhy hands off me!"

"Besides," said Random, "I already have a feisty new femme-friend to deal vith! I'm flattered but no zhanks, I'm fine!"

Cynthia continued to watch the spectacle. Blitzwing walked away from the girls and went to the men's restroom that was by the table he and Cyndi were sitting at earlier. Holding onto her belongings, she ran away from the scene with the intentions to drive home and remain there for a week if she could.

'_...a fiesty new femme-friend to deal vith!_'... Cynthia could only imagine what that meant. With chills running down her spine, she picked up the pace, practically running back to her car.


	5. The Unsettling Eve

**Hello my peeps! I'm surprised it didn't take me forever to get this chapter in so I'm proud of myself that I got this done... Nothing much to comment on or point out in this update. Thanks for the last reviews/alerts/faves and enjoy the newest addition :)**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 5 The Unsettling Eve

(Decepticon base – 12:45pm)

"Ugh, she is ungrateful and unpleasant!" Icy complained. "I should have crushed her beneath my stabilizing servo as soon as I saw her!"

When his holoform retreated into the bathroom, he went into an empty stall. From there, his disguise evaporated and he fully went on line again in the 'Con lair. He was sitting upright on his berth and he had just quit use of his disguise.

Blitzwing shook his helm. Sometimes, his electrical systems had felt a little overheated especially when he wanted to give his holoform some body. He felt like he needed to recharge to replenish his strength.

"But I zhink zhose two femmes had to be ze most annoying!" Hothead stated. "No Human may touch me in zat vay and live!"

"I didn't zhink Cynzhia vould be fierce!" Random was somewhat amazed by her hostility towards him. "Zat vas a surprise!"

"Does she have any idea of vhat I am capable of?" The blue face too was taken aback by the ferocity he didn't know she had. "I let her go so easily! I vas so tempted to hit her…"

"But ve didn't… Vhy vould I punch Cynzhia? I zhink I like her!"

"Vhat is zhere to like about zat Human insect?" Hothead said belittlingly. "She's got quite a mouth on her. I'd like to see her mouth off to me in zhis body!" He pounded a fist against his chassis. "Come on, Cynzhia! Talk back to me now!"

"She is not vorth my time and effort," Icy decided. "She is afraid of me for sure, she even confessed it and zherefore, she vill remain quiet about our two encounters. And I made a small promise to her just because she is only an insignificant Human who can really do no harm to me." He still looked severely displeased though. "Vhat makes me angry is her ungratefulness zhough…"

"Blitzwing!" Lugnut's mighty servo slammed against the door to his quarters. "What are you talking about?"

"None of jour business, jou overgrown, iron-brained idiot!" Hothead yelled at the husky Decepticon.

"Your business is equally my business! Does it concern our grand and glorious leader, Megatron?"

"Ooh, not at all!" Random answered. "Instead, it concerns…"

"Nozhing!" Hothead returned. He didn't wish to mention Cynthia for fear of being made fun of by his fellow Decepticons. "It's an issue vith myself!"

There was an awkward passing of time between Lugnut and Blitzwing. Neither had said anything else or even seemed to twitch a servo.

"No matter!" Lugnut shattered the silence. "Just keep it down, Blitzwing! Mighty Megatron will not take kindly to your frequent outbursts much longer! Ugh, sometimes, I do not know how I put up with a bot with such a scattered processor!"

"Hey, it's a good processor and fully functional!" Random said in a semi hurt tone. "Sometimes I just can't contain myself!"

"More like all the time…" Lugnut grumbled to himself low enough so his partner couldn't hear. Then he raised the volume of his voice. "Just pipe down in there!"

The cyclopean 'Con walked away from the door and down the corridor. Blitzwing listened carefully to his footfalls to make sure Lugnut really was gone. Within a few moments, he could no longer hear him.

"Primus forbid zat Lugnut vould start to zhink too much about ze two meetings vith zat Human," Hothead mumbled. "Ze last zhing I need is a talk vith Megatron."

"Or have Starscream push me around again," added Random.

"Vhatever, I don't care for her or any of zhose insects," Icy coldly stated.

"But she's so sassy! I love sassy femmes!" The jack-o-lantern face chuckled. "I know vhere she lives… Maybe I should go visit her and bozher her some more! She's fun to tease!"

"Next time I see her, she's dead," Hothead reminded bitterly.

(Preston apartment, December 23rd – 5:30pm)

Cynthia drew the curtains over her window. Just to be sure and extra secure, she pulled down the blind, completely cutting off natural light from the outside world. Her room was plunged in darkness and the only tiny beacon of light in it was in the form of a candle. The wick had all but deteriorated and wax was becoming stubbornly encrusted onto her nightstand.

She sat down on her bed, feeling safe and as collected as an enlightened Buddhist. The whole apartment was calm and quiet. Mandy and Darien were watching TV, waiting for their parents to show up at any given moment. Before Robert and Helen Preston could come, Cynthia decided to have some time to herself.

Her thoughts were always running wild and at any moment, adrenaline was about to be released into her body. She was alert and becoming increasingly paranoid as the days went by since she met Blitzwing for the second time at the mall. The four days that passed since their previous meeting felt like four centuries. Tension gripped her and Cyndi always feared he'd show up at her window with the intentions to kill her and take revenge on her for her curtness. So far, she had no giant and belligerent visitor and she hoped he would keep his promise and stay away.

"He creeps me out," she privately admitted to herself. "If he was a real man, I bet he'd be a serial killer or rapist. And what the Hell is up with those three faces?" Cyndi shook her head. "Craziness." Then she smiled. "Keep your cool, Cynthia. You are the independent woman. You're the queen of your life. No one and nothing's getting in your way. Now that you spread your wings and you're aloft, don't descend. Keep going strong."

Her cheek itched and she scratched it. She then stopped after a few scrapes when she remembered something. A certain scene played back in her mind's eye from a few days ago at the mall. Cyndi remembered how he touched that very cheek when he took his hand from her mouth. Her fingers ran across that tiny area, reminiscing about it.

"Eerie… Extremely eerie. I swear I can still feel his cold and lifeless fingers there."

Her heart then fell and her self confidence utterly dissipated. Cyndi sat cross legged on her bed and buried her face into her hands. She sighed.

"Cyndi, you've screwed yourself too if he says he's going to kill you the next time he sees you. Why did I have to act so fierce?" She mentally face-palmed herself. "Duh, he's evil! I'm a good girl. But he didn't seem to be acting hostile towards me although he was relishing my fear. Yet did I have to act that way? We were talking but that could've ended up leading up to something else like my death for all I know."

She removed her hands from her face. Cyndi looked over at the candle. There was only a tiny ember licking at the wick now.

"You brought that little bit on to yourself. You should've been smarter and not acted that way. Now, you just better make sure you conveniently stay away or else you become a pancake."

"Mom! Dad!"

Cynthia jumped at Mandy's loud greeting.

"Mandy, look at you!" Helen doted. "You look as precious as ever, sweetie!"

Without wasting another moment, Cyndi walked out of her dank room. She turned to her immediate left, looking into the living room. It didn't take her long to catch sight of her mother and father who were standing right in the room with Darien and Amanda.

"Well, it looks like you both made it in one piece," Cynthia spoke as she walked over to her reunited family. "It's good to have you come here for Christmas, Mom and Dad."

"Of course we had to come here and spend Christmas with our children," Helen said as she embraced her eldest child. "How are you, honey?"

"Good. Things are alright."

"You don't have any boyfriends I should know about, right?" Robert added, approaching Cynthia.

"Pfft, really? Yeah, right. I wouldn't be able to have time for one considering I'm Junior Mom to my siblings. Besides, I don't want to deal with fools like Wes Larkson again."

"Yeah, you sound the same as usual."

Robert kissed Cyndi on her cheek. It was her other cheek and not the cheek Blitzwing's touch had soiled. Secretly, she wished his kiss would wash away the sensation she felt on it.

"Okay, you kids have to tell me everything about what's been going on in this city since your father and I came here to visit during Thanksgiving," said Helen. She pulled her long light brown hair into a ponytail, pulling her bangs out of her pale green eyes. "I merely wonder about my babies, that's all."

"Detroit's awesome!" Darien reported. "I don't ever want to leave this place! I feel like I belong here…"

"It's cool," Mandy shrugged. "The only bad thing about this city are the giant robots that run around. The battles they have with each other sometimes cause really bad traffic jams. I got stuck in one of them on the way to work like two or three times."

"That's right!" Helen exclaimed loudly. "I forgot they still run around here like a bunch of rabid wolves." She turned to her husband. "Robert, how did we let our kids go to live in this place again?"

"Cyndi needed to go to college, dear," he reminded her. "Mandy and Darien wanted to follow to stimulate their sleepy lives due to living in Greenvale for too long. And look, honey, they're fine." Robert shot a concerned glance at his only son. "For now at least."

"Did you ever happen to cross paths with any of these robot-things?"

"Oh God, no," Cynthia lied. "All three of us had the luck to never meet one."

"What the heck are you talking about?" The youngest Preston male turned to his eldest sister. "I'd love to meet one of them!"

"Yeah, especially one of those Decepticon guys," Amanda rolled her eyes. "That'd be the highlight of your day. That'd be your last day on Earth!"

"I know one of the robots is named Blitzwing," revealed Cyndi.

"Blitzwing?" Robert raised his eyebrow. "What the Hell? What is he? Some kind of intergalactic space Nazi?"

Cynthia laughed out loud at his speculation.

"I have no clue," she said. "I overheard his name actually from one of my fellow students. She had an encounter with him in the city. He nearly squashed her like a bug. All I can say is, she danced with the Devil and lived." She narrowed her bluish gray eyes. "Too bad she won't be so lucky next time, I bet. Next time, he'll get her."

(11:20pm)

"Hey, Cyndi."

Amanda walked into Cynthia's darkened room. There was a new candle set up since the previous one had been discarded due to the fact that there was no more wax to burn. The blonde narrowed her eyes and she tried to peer through the darkness. Her eyes had yet to adjust to the lack of light but she could make out enough of what was where in the room.

"Cynthia."

Scratching her head, Mandy walked around her sister's bedroom. She thought she heard her in her room. The girl followed her in so that she could have a little private chat with her.

Since they went to the Christmas light festival a few days earlier, Amanda had noticed a change in her sister's behavior. Cynthia seemed very skittish and paranoid. She knew Cyndi always was somewhat paranoid especially when it came down to her and Darien but there was something a little different about this little quirk of hers. After Cyndi returned from the mall, she even proposed that the three of them should go back home to Greenvale for Christmas and New Years. Stranger still, the eldest sibling wanted all the windows in their apartment to be sealed off with curtains, forbidding anyone to look in at all.

Amanda fully believed that something happened at the festival in the woods that Cynthia didn't tell her. However, she wanted the conversation to be confidential just so her parents and Darien wouldn't get in on the matter as well and make things potentially worse.

In a minute, it became obvious to Mandy that she wasn't in her room. Then she heard the toilet flush in the bathroom across the hall.

"Wow, Mandy, what a blonde moment," she scolded herself.

She looked over at her sister's window, seeing it was completely covered. Growling in disgust, Mandy pulled the curtains back. Then she hoisted the blind up.

When she removed all these obstructions, moon and starlight poured into the room. Mandy looked out the window with a tiny smile on her face, enjoying the quiet atmosphere.

"What is there to hide from?" she asked herself. "What is going up with that girl?"

Then her pale green eyes caught sight of something. She narrowed her eyes and almost pressed her face up against the glass. In the parking lot, approximately forty feet away, there was a man staring back at her. His arms were folded across his chest and Mandy could barely make out a sour scowl on his face.

As she remained locked in the stare, she could vaguely see his features. When she saw them, she could see he was a quite handsome looking man. Simultaneously, Amanda couldn't help to not feel intimidated by his deathly glare. She also couldn't really identify his eye color either due to the distance they maintained.

Then she decided to open up the window and speak to him. The frigid winter air swept into the room, blowing out Cynthia's candle. Amanda didn't lift up the screen barrier, seeing it was not much of a barrier.

"Can I help you, sir?" she called out. "Are you looking for someone who lives here? Are you here to see relatives for Christmas?"

He didn't reply. All he did was observe her with an icy and calculating gaze. He was unmoving and he looked like a statue. Mandy even wondered for a fleeting second if he was really real or not.

"Sir! Are you okay? It's freezing out there, you have to go inside!"

At last, she got a reaction out of him.

The weird man's grave expression melted away only to be replaced by an evil and toothy smile. He waved at her.

A handsome yet psychotic man… What a twist.

Mandy promptly closed the window with a loud slam, legitimately feeling threatened by him. She pulled the blind down and hurried out of her sister's bedroom. As soon as she entered the hall, she crossed paths with Cynthia who was just coming out of the bathroom.

"Cyndi," Amanda whispered. She looked over her shoulder, seeing her parents and brother were still watching '_It's a Wonderful Life_'. "I gotta tell you something, Sis."

"Mandy, what's going on?" Cyndi could see the worry on her face.

"Let's go into your room. Let's not bring the other three into this."

They entered the bedroom. Cynthia realized her candle was not lit due to the intensity of the darkness. She also noticed the curtains were not drawn across the window as she left them earlier.

"Mandy, did you look out my window?" she asked.

"I wanted to open up your blinds and curtains because this place is as dark as a mausoleum!" Amanda explained. "I looked outside and I was minding my own business, seeing how nice everything was. And as I'm looking around, I saw this guy standing in the parking lot."

"A guy? Just some random guy?"

"Oh, Cyndi, he looked delicious!" She smiled and blushed a little. "I think we have our very own Edward Cullen on our hands…"

"Edward Cullen? You mean a creepy, bloodsucking stalker."

"He was so handsome but he was so evil looking at the same time. He was staring into the window, Cyndi. The guy looked really pissed, like he almost had murder on his mind or something. I asked him what his business was but he ignored the first time. During the second time, I finally got a reaction out of him. He smiled at me and waved at me…" Amanda shuddered. "I had to close the window and pull the blind down."

Cynthia's worst fears were realized. Immediately, she suspected who this mysterious male was. Pushing Mandy out of the way, she dashed to her window. She pulled up the blind and scanned the parking lot for any sign of Blitzwing's holoform.

"Sis, did you get a good look at his face?" Cyndi asked without turning around to face her.

"I could see some of his face," Mandy recalled. "It was enough for me to see he looked so…" She giggled like the girls who went up to Blitzwing at the mall a few days earlier. "Handsome…"

"Did you see his eye color?"

"No, I was too far away to see the eye color. Why?"

"Because if this guy happens to be a serial killer or something like that, we can positively identify him if some bad things start to happen around here."

"Cyndi, don't scare me like that. If he is some murderer, I bet we'd be his first victims considering I interacted with him."

As Cynthia continued to look for the man her sister spoke of, it became obvious to her that he had simply evaporated as if he wasn't even there. There was no sign of him in the parking lot or anywhere else for that matter. Her heart felt like it was snaking up her throat and her pulse began to quicken. Even her breathing began to heavy.

"Cyndi, are you okay?" Amanda placed a hand on her shoulder. "I can hear you breathing."

"Yeah, I'm fine, you're just making me a little paranoid because of what you said about the guy," she answered.

"If he's a sexy stalker, I can live with it."

"Yeah, unless if he breaks into the apartment and slits our throats like Sweeney Todd. I won't abide by that." She drew her face away from the window. "We just have to be more careful…"

"Cynthia and Amanda!" Helen called to her daughters. "You're missing the movie, girls! Get in here and bond with us now! I haven't seen my daughters in a month!"

"Okay, Mom, hold on!" Mandy yelled back. She lowered her voice and focused her attention on Cyndi. "Are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" Cyndi repeated. "Of course. Why?"

"You're acting fishy. Ever since we went to the lights festival, you seemed…" Amanda paused to find the right words. "Terrified and wary. You know you can tell me anything, Cyndi. You're my best friend and I ought to be yours. What we talk about stays between us and no one else, okay?"

"Really, Mandy, it's nothing. I'm just a great big worrywart, that's all."

"Cyndi, come on. I know there's something bugging you. Sometimes, I can read you like a book. I had never seen you terrified in all my life when you came running up to Darien and I. And after you returned from the mall and suggested we should go back to Greenvale for Christmas and New Years, I've had a hunch. Is there someone or something bothering you?"

"No. You'd be the first person to know about if it if there was something up." She placed a hand on Amanda's left shoulder. "You don't need to worry about me, kiddo. I'm the adult in this apartment when Mom and Dad aren't here. I ought to be concerned about you and Darien."

"Cyndi, you don't need to act so mature and serious. I know you're only acting the way you are because you're the eldest child and you have to convince Mom and Dad you're taking care of us. I know what you were like before you moved away from Greenvale."

"At least I grew up and you remained the same." Cynthia became defensive. "I had to grow up because two kids wanted to follow me."

"Chill out, Sis. I was just saying…"

"I get it. Now can we just drop the crap and go back to the living room? We don't need to attract attention. Go out to them and I'll be out in two minutes, okay? I need to relight my candle."

Obligingly, Amanda walked out of the room, obeying her sister. Cynthia walked over to her nightstand and opened up a drawer. When the drawer was fully opened, she grabbed a sheet of loose leaf paper and then closed the drawer. She retrieved a pen from her purse and sat down on her bed. Quickly, she scribbled some words onto the paper.

"I hope you get the message this time," she said darkly.

The message said: 'Stay away from me and my family. I don't appreciate stalkers'. She read over the note again. Then she decided to add a sentence. That little extra said: 'Or it's war and I promise you will lose'.

As Cynthia walked over to the window, she folded the note up into the shape of a paper airplane. She opened up the window and the screen barrier. Then she cast it off into the night, hoping he was still in the darkness and watching everything from a distance.


	6. Crossroads

**Hey everyone! :D Thanks for the alerts/faves/reviews as always. You guys rock my socks. Here's the update (yeah I have nothing else to comment on... Problem? Lol jk.) so please enjoy it!**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 6 Crossroads

(January 6th, downtown – 12:30pm)

Cynthia sighed deeply yet she had a pleased smile on her face. She was sitting down with a carefree aura exuding from her. As she sat on the bench, her legs were crossed and she was leaning back into the bench as if she was the bee's knees. Her posture was loose yet confident and proud. She looked like as if she had emerged victorious from some unknown ordeal and she was soaking up as much of the sweetness of it as she could.

At least, she had assumed it was an excellent victory.

Over two weeks had gone by since she had last crossed paths with Blitzwing. Exactly two weeks ago, she had let her paper airplane fly off into the night. She had never known if her message had reached the man who was standing in the parking lot, glaring at Amanda. Cyndi did hope he got the note and had heeded it, deciding to remember his promise with the organic and steer clear of her. As a result of these assumptions, Cynthia self-proclaimed this to be a victory won entirely through her actions. Seeing him no longer also further convinced her she had effectively taken care of the matter.

Cynthia had privately gloated on this achievement. Still, she told nothing of the encounters to anyone as she kept her honor and promise to the triple changer. However, Amanda and Darien noticed she seemingly became less paranoid and skittish overnight. They were happy to see she returned to normal for the most part. Yet when she reached her state of equilibrium, the siblings noticed she seemed more confident than what she usually was. The two would even describe this new trait as arrogance.

"I'm alive so I can happily say he got my little message," Cyndi thought to herself. "Hopefully, I'll never have to see those ugly faces. It's about time that idiot got enough sense knocked into him. Either that or he's too cowardly to carry out war with me." She grinned inwardly. "He may be a lot bigger than me but I have brains and determination. Blitzwing, you're out of luck. I'm so glad to see you kept your promise after I had to remind you ever so gently."

Helen and Robert's visit was pleasant and Cynthia was truly happy to have spent time with them. After her birthday on January third, the Preston matriarch and patriarch left Detroit to head back home to the Adirondack Mountains. Now that she was twenty three years old and one year older than what she was just a few days, Cyndi felt like she was a queen. Everything seemed so perfect and under her control. As a matter of fact, she felt like she could face the four Decepticons she heard about singlehandedly without the five Autobots' assistance.

Contently, Cynthia watched as the citizens of Detroit went along with their lives. The young, the old, the black, the white, the tall, the short, the lean, the fat… All of them walked along together up and down the sidewalks and across the streets. It was nice to such a harmony of so many different types of people all conglomerate together into the city.

She looked at the watch around her wrist: it was 12:30. Amanda and Darien still had two hours to go off and shop and socialize with friends. Cynthia had nothing to do and only went with her siblings to chauffeur them to downtown. All she had required of them was to have them text her every half an hour to let her know they were alright. Anymore, Cyndi began to pride on her unofficial title as Junior Mom. The best part about it was that they didn't come from her womb and she had no spouse.

At the corner of her eye, she could see a crowd accumulating. Cyndi sat up in her seat and turned around. She looked across the street, seeing something she wasn't too happy about.

She saw two of the five Autobots with the Detroit police department chief, Captain Fanzone, conversing with some of the people in the crowd. Sneakily, Cynthia crossed the street with intentions to eavesdrop on everyone and see what was going on. The woman stood on the outer fringes of the group, becoming a passive part of it.

"Okay, people," Fanzone spoke into a megaphone. "Now, it's nothing special really. These two Autobots…" He paused for a moment, forgetting their names temporarily. "Ratchet and Prowl just want to ask anyone if they have heard or seen anything regarding the Decepticon presence in the city. Any information about those pesky robots would be much appreciated."

"Hey, we wanna know the same thing!" one of the crowd members said. "They're all up to no good, that's for sure! Where'd they all go?"

"That's why we're asking you," Ratchet said with a dour expression. "We haven't seen them in some time and because of that, we think they're up to something."

Immediately, Cynthia had the controllable desire to spill the beans. She wanted to tell the two Autobots of her previous encounters with Blitzwing. Presently, her promise to the triple changer to keep their meetings a secret meant nothing. Her arrogance convinced her he wouldn't come after her. Even if he did, Cyndi believed the Autobots could run to her rescue if such a thing did happen. Blitzwing was an enemy of her kind. Ratchet and Prowl were allies on the other hand.

Despite the Decepticon and the organic girl being enemies, he didn't kill her. Cyndi was more than aware he could've killed her a hundred times over during their two meetings. Yet there she was, alive, happy and overtly confident. As she thought deeper, she realized this was one of the two reasons why she kept her promise to Blitzwing. The other reason was undoubtedly her fear too.

"Dammit!" she mentally vented. "I don't know what I should do… I mean, he didn't even reveal to me what exactly he was doing around the city. He said something about covert operations but of course he wouldn't reveal anything significant to me considering we're inherent foes. Yet he broke his promise to stay away when he stood in the parking lot and glared daggers at my sister. He does know where I live after all… But, he hasn't been hanging around near the city as far as I know. Maybe he and his friends are planning something big." She smiled outwardly. "Maybe I can give an anonymous tip to the police who can then relay it to the Autobots! That's brilliant!"

"Has anyone noticed any peculiarly painted jets flying around?"Prowl interrogated, hoping to stir up something from the crowd's memories. "How about a tank?"

"Yes, I talked with a disguised Decepticon at the mall back in December and there's a good chance he's been stalking me ever since," Cyndi wanted to say. "But you'll learn about that later when the police tell you they got an anonymous tip."

"Well, you ought to share with us any information you have about these bots," another crowd member stated. "I want to be able to sleep at night!"

"Don't worry," Prowl assured, "the public will know for your own good and safety."

"But for now, we don't know what's going on," Ratchet was simply irritated and miserable. He was wondering if the Decepticons were hiding just to lead him and his comrades to believe they were up to something. "We just wanted some information so we could possibly prepare for whatever they happen to throw at us…"

Suddenly, Cynthia could hear screams coming at her from behind. In unison, she, the crowd, Fanzone and the Autobots looked to the direction where the commotion was originating. Her eyes widened in terror as she saw a car flying through the air towards the crowd. Everyone, both inorganic and organic moved out of the way, seeing the car was coming to them too closely to be stopped or caught.

Seconds later, there was a loud supersonic whoosh that came from above. Cyndi looked up, seeing a burgundy and dark gray jet fly overhead for a split second.

"Hello, Autobot scum!" Starscream haughtily greeted. "Did you forget that we existed?"

"Don't just stand there!" Fanzone told the two Autobots. "Call your other friends in! We don't need civilian casualties on our hands here!"

"I was just getting to that," Prowl said as he began to contact Optimus' com.

Prowl's action reminded her to do something. Cynthia pulled her cellphone out of her pocket. With trembling fingers, she dialed Amanda's phone. She sprinted away from where the crowd once stood, holding the phone tightly against her head.

"Come on, pick up, pick up!" she whispered harshly.

A few ringtones went by before she could hear Mandy's voice.

"H-H-Hello?" The blonde sounded extremely shaken.

"Mandy!" Cyndi nearly screamed into the phone. "We're under attack! I got a car thrown at me and some jet flew over my head!"

"Dude, a tank is driving around outside!" Darien shrieked in the background. "I'm freaking out, man!"

"He's with you?" The eldest asked.

"Yeah, he just met up with me five minutes ago!" Mandy explained. "Cyndi, what should we do?"

"Stay right where you are and stay low! I will come to you! Where are you two at?"

"We're at the ice skating rink! You know where that is right?"

"Yeah, that's about half a mile from where I am! You and Darien stay right there, do you understand me?"

"Save us, Big Sis!" Darien pleaded.

(a few minutes later…)

Cynthia instantly dropped to the ground as soon as she heard the explosively loud boom. She placed her hands on her head and shut her eyelids. It was so powerful, she could've sworn it rattled the mitochondrion in her cells. All around her, people were screaming and running around en masse like confused wildebeest.

In the distance, she could hear an Autobot bark out orders which she assumed was their leader. There was some other yelling from both Autobots and Decepticons. However, as far as she could tell, she didn't hear a particular voice or set of voices for that matter. That didn't really register in her mind though since her mind was set on one thing and one thing only: finding her brother and sister.

Cautiously, Cyndi removed her hands from her head. Her eyes opened and she looked at the eerily desolate urban landscape around her.

The streets were completely deserted. Some cars were engulfed by flames and overturned. Glass and other bits of miscellaneous rubble littered the streets. She could see some people take refuge in allies and others breaking down doors into buildings to find solace and safety.

Despite her obvious fright and anxiety, Cyndi began to army crawl, preferring to keep low. Her pulse sky rocketed and her senses were sharpened due to the adrenaline and cocktail of other life-saving hormones and enzymes racing through her veins. The silence bugged her immensely and as long as it prolonged, she became more nervous and edgy.

Then she forced herself to stand up, abandoning the crawl. Cynthia could see the ice skating rink about a thousand feet away. A weird cross between a smile and a frown graced her face, seeing the destination point was so close yet so far. She took a sprint of faith, bolting to the rink to reunite with her siblings and get out of downtown alive.

"Miss, get down!"

She looked to the left where the voice came from, spotting a big green Autobot. In a split second, she turned to her gaze to the right instinctively, catching sight of a beige and purple tank.

"Oh, f…" Cyndi began to mumble.

The tank shot at Bulkhead, knocking him off his stabilizing servos and sending him flying through the air. The shots from the tank whizzed above Cyndi's head, locking her into a state of paralysis and awe. She stood amazed and horrified all at the same time. Her stare was fixed and unblinking on Blitzwing. A few seconds later, she heard a mighty crash behind her and without turning around, she knew Bulkhead landed at last. Judging by the shattering of glass she guessed her crashed into the side of an office building.

Cynthia felt like a deer caught in the headlights of an eighteen wheeler. Her mouth felt drought-stricken. The very same conditions and extreme feelings she experienced when meeting him had all returned. His parting words to her at the mall echoed in her mind.

"Looks like I'm going to see Peter at the gates in two minutes," she told herself.

Blitzwing then assumed his robot mode. Despite Hothead's volatile behavior, he patiently walked up to her. Cyndi was disgusted by her mind and body's lack of connection in this dire situation.

He was well aware of her presence. He looked down at her. Then Icy took over.

"Move, Cynzhia," he said. "Go home."

Contrary to his words, it appeared he was going to spare her again. Although he gave her mercy yet again, Cynthia couldn't grasp it. All she could do was gawk. At the back of her mind, she chided herself for acting so insanely stupid but it was all she could at the moment.

"Hello, Cynzhia!" said Random. "Are jou home?"

At last, she managed to react in some way in the form of taking a few steps backwards. Her footing slipped and Cyndi landed brusquely on her rump. She cringed a little at the impact but she shrugged it off literally a second later.

"God must hate me," she shook her head. Cynthia scooted away from him on her butt at a snail's pace. "Get away from me!"

"Vith pleasure," Hothead said venomously.

Cyndi briefly looked over to where the rink was. Still, it seemed within reach yet forlorn. Then she turned her attention back to Blitzwing, distrusting him.

"I have ozher zhings to vorry about so stay out of ze vay!" The red face said. "I can't vaste my time squishing organics!"

"You won't kill me again…" she whispered.

"Vhat..?" He paused and shook his helm. "Just leave me be and let me kill zat big green bruiser!"

"Cyndi!" Amanda screamed from the rink, terrified and desperate for her sister's help. "We're here!"

"Sis, don't leave a bro hanging!" Darien urged with equal fear in his voice.

"Jou have siblings?" Icy asked.

"Shit, you know too much again!" Cyndi cursed. Her face turned hostile and her voice malicious. "What more could you possibly find out about me?"

"Jou're incredibly daft to ze vorld around jou."

"Really? How so?"

"I'll show jou."

Before she could try to decipher what exactly he was talking about, Blitzwing stepped over her. One of his giant metal feet stood directly in front of her and if Cynthia stretched her arm out, she'd be touching it. She could only watch as he lifted his arms up into the air, catching a rogue and airborne tractor trailer. She gasped so deeply, she almost winded herself.

"Hey, Lugnut!" Hothead yelled over to his compatriot. "I'm standing here! Do jou know how to zhrow?"

The three faced robot threw the large vehicle back to where Lugnut was about a few blocks away. It exploded in fiery and chaotic splendor. Cyndi watched the whole spectacle from behind the safety of his stabilizing servo. Because she was so engrossed with this harrowing minute, she didn't realize both of her hands were placed on the metal foot that shielded her from the tractor trailer. She then quickly snapped herself back to reality, removing her hands literally a second before he turned his optics down to her.

"Now get," he ordered.

"Oh my God, Cynthia!" said a male voice.

Both Blitzwing and Cynthia faced the direction where the voice came from. There stood Amanda and Darien looking very surprised and pale in the face. Mandy had her hands over her mouth but her eyes were huge. Darien's mouth was gaping like a sinkhole.

"Cyndi, get away from that thing!" Mandy screamed and cried.

Blitzwing raised the inorganic foot that shielded Cynthia and stamped it into the ground, sending a tremor through it. All three Preston siblings screeched at the same time. Cyndi fled over to her brother and sister's side. When they had reunited with each other, they ran away, heading to anyplace that offered refuge from the warring robots.

As soon as they began to bolt from Blitzwing, Bulkhead shot his wrecking ball out of his servo, hitting the triple changer with it. The Autobot had fully recovered from his nasty flight and crash landing. As soon as he saw the Human girl standing so stupidly behind Blitzwing's foot, he knew he had to take action.

Cyndi glanced behind for a moment, seeing him crumble to the ground as the ball hit him in the middle of his back. She cringed slightly when she saw him fall flat on his face.

"What the Hell is wrong with you?" Mandy said as they continued running.

"Sis, your name should be changed to 'Dances with Robots!'" Darien shook his head. "Damn Cyndi, I didn't know you had balls made of diamonds! Or, you're insane and I've never known it until now!"

Cynthia completely ignored their comments. Instead, she could only obsess and dwell on the fact she had miraculously survived a third encounter with him. He didn't kill her and he saved her from being crushed by a tractor trailer caused by Lugnut's horribly miscalculated throw. Her immediate foe had saved her and she didn't ask for it. Last time she checked, foes were constantly trying to kill each other in whatever way possible. Yet this enemy shielded her, in essence, with his whole body, keeping himself in between her and the vehicle.

It made no sense.


	7. Apologetic Gambler

**Hey there readers :D Thanks for the reviews/faves/alerts! I love the love. Now we're finally getting to the part of the story when things are getting a little more interesting between Cyndi Blitzwing. I promise it'll only get better with each chapter that goes by. Enjoy the update and don't forget to review too: I want to know how I'm doing with this story so far...**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 7 Apologetic Gambler

(the apartment, January 7th – 9:50pm)

"And just where is your crazy ass going off to now?" Amanda asked.

The car keys in Cynthia's hand jingled and clanked together. She bit her lower lip then faced her sister. Mandy was looking at Cyndi inquisitively.

"Huh?" the blonde pressed the matter.

"A drive," the eldest sibling replied simply.

"'A drive'?" Amanda spooned some Trix into her mouth. "Is that it?"

"Uh, yeah. You know Trix are for kids, honey?"

"Screw you. You didn't make dinner tonight so I settled for some cereal. So, where are you going to drive to?"

"Why are you fifty questioning me?"

"Because, I am a little concerned for you. I think your brain isn't working considering I saw you hanging around a Decepticon's foot yesterday!"

"Look, I came out alive and that's the important thing, right?"

"He's gonna get you next time!" Amanda drank the rest of the pinkish colored milk out of the bowl. "You won't be so lucky then! I was so ready to call Mom and Dad yesterday but you convinced me otherwise…"

"We'd be back home in Greenvale by now if you did that," Darien jumped into the conversation as he walked into the kitchen. "I can't fly with that. I have to admit that was some crazy stuff we saw yesterday. That Blitzwing dude is whack."

"Yes, I noticed that first hand," Cyndi said blandly.

"But I guess it's better facing him than old Megatron…"

"Megatron..?"

"I did a Google search at two in the morning when you were all sleeping. Thank God for the internet. I read articles that reporters wrote in Detroit's newspapers about the alien robots. The bad guys are the Decepticons. Megatron's the Decepticon leader. There's three more of them here in the city and their names are Starscream, Blitzwing and Lugnut."

"Great," said Mandy, "I don't care at all. I'm just happy to be alive."

"Okay, this is getting horribly side-tracked," said Cynthia. "I'm leaving."

"Hey, where're you going?" Darien missed the first part of the conversation.

"Away from you. I'm going to go drive somewhere and be with my thoughts. Do not leave this apartment. I'll be back later."

Without waiting for an answer or reaction of any kind from her siblings, Cyndi abruptly left.

(twenty miles out of Detroit)

Cyndi shut the car off and pulled the keys out of the ignition once she had pulled over to the side of the road. The headlights toned down to nothing and darkness surrounded the vehicle. She leaned back in her seat and blankly stared down the dimly lit road. There were no street lights along this stretch of road and the only light came in the form of star and moonlight from the heavens. In a way, it was somewhat of a daunting scenario but she wasn't terribly bothered by it. In fact, it was soothing to her.

She wanted to leave so badly because she needed time to think by herself. In this solace, Cynthia wanted to try to decide on something and she certainly didn't want Amanda and Darien's interference in this most private matter. Since yesterday's incident, she had felt scatterbrained and not sure of what to think of.

The strangest thing that came about from the battle in the city that happened to her was a feeling of remorse and ungratefulness she nurtured in her heart. Those came about as a direct result of Blitzwing saving her and telling her to move out of the way. Anymore, she felt as if she was indebted to him for his mercy which she found to be totally uncharacteristic to his faction. His actions totally confused her. He ought to have known they were enemies, the Humans and Decepticons. Did he forget the organics were united with the Autobots in their fight against them? He said he was going to crush her the next time he saw her but when they did reunite, he told her to go home.

Cynthia had felt those prodding emotions of regret and ungratefulness because she had reacted to him at all times with terror and then protective rage. Over the past day, she had thought deeply about the nature of their encounters. As far as she could remember, he didn't seem to be overtly hostile and when he did, it was because she was becoming coarse towards him. There was also a little hint of sadism she felt in him when he interrogated her at the mall but she just believed it was because he loved to see her overreacting and frightened. In downtown, Cyndi could tell immediately he had no business with her (and for that, she thanked God heartily). Yesterday was just another lucky encounter neither had anticipated.

Still, she couldn't get over the knowledge Blitzwing stood in front of her and caught the tractor trailer. Instead, he could've just watched it land right on top of her, laugh for a good few solid seconds and then finish off Bulkhead. The being whom she considered to be the greatest personal threat to her security had become her savior… It all made no sense.

Truly, Cynthia felt she deserved no mercy from him. More than anything else, she believed she deserved death for angering him. Yet, she didn't get it.

"Why am I exempt?" she asked herself. "Why didn't I die? I should've died a hundred times over already. I cursed and threatened him but he saved me." She completely forgot about the note she sent to him. "I'm surprised he didn't say anything about that thing too… I'm confusing myself just thinking about this stuff!"

She sighed and rested her head against the steering wheel. Then she opened up the car door and stepped out into the evening. Surprisingly, the night wasn't as chilly as she remembered it to be. It was still in the lower thirties but it was pleasant for this time of year.

"I'm crazy for thinking this… But I believe I have to apologize to him. He may still be very well angry with me for the past and I do not want that fact hovering around at the back of mind every day. Maybe if I apologize, he'll see I'm a decent Human and maybe not kill me. That'd make my life. He's just so unpredictable… Maybe I should write my will first and then plan on confronting him." She paced around the car. "I'm just so confused!"

At the mall, Cyndi recalled that she accused him of having no honor because he was a Decepticon. He begged to differ however and gave her a few good reasons why otherwise. Due to the fact her heart was still beating, she was now starting to become convinced he wasn't deceiving her about that. Still, nothing made any sense as she tried to analyze him.

"I ought to just give up on trying to understand because nothing's working out with trying to comprehend this. Maybe he is insane… Yup, there's my verdict. I'm dealing with a giant robot who doesn't even know what he's doing. He's so crazy, he can't even obey his programming to kill everything moving." Cynthia exhaled. "But I still feel like I need to apologize for being a bitch and thank him properly for sparing me. If he didn't save me from that flying truck, I don't think I'd be pondering about all this… Now how do I find this guy? I'm not going up to their base, ring their door bell and ask Blitzwing to come out. I'm just asking to die that way."

Cyndi walked off into a snowdrift, climbing it and not caring if she got wet from it or not. Once she got over the wall of snow, she got a view of the scenery around her.

"This can't get anymore desolate…"

For miles and miles, all she could see were barren woodlands and snow-covered fields. She could spot houses that sporadically dotted the rural landscape but besides the dwellings, those were the only signs of life. Cyndi found it odd that there were no disturbances in the snow like footprints from either animals or people. In fact, everything seemed to be uneasily calm as if the very environment was holding its breath to wait for something to occur. There was no sound nor breeze either. As a matter of fact, Cynthia was almost half-expecting to have a werewolf burst out from the woods and maul her.

She cupped her hands together and expanded her lungs. Cynthia brought the cupped hands to her face and opened her mouth.

"Hello!" she called.

The greeting echoed loudly and clearly for a few seconds before it eventually died down. Cyndi still stood at the crest of the snowdrift, idling. She braced her lungs and vocal cords again.

"'_Oh, you better watch out, you better not pout, I'm telling you why_'!" she half yelled and half sang. Cynthia had no idea why she wanted to suddenly sing a Christmas carol. "_Santa Claus is coming to town_'!"

For some reason, she seemed to be amused to listen to the echo of her singing. Right now, she didn't care if it looked childish and stupid. It was a little escape from reality and that was all that mattered.

"'_He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake…_'!"

"'_So jou better be good for goodness sake_'!"

The blood in her veins turned into slush. The random voice had picked up when she was about to sing the other part of the verse. Slowly, she took a few steps forward, walking deeper into a field. Cynthia mustered up what courage she could.

"'_Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way…_'" Her voice was clearly cracking and wavering.

"'_Oh, vhat fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh, hey!_'" The voice picked up for her again.

"You asked for it, Cyndi…" she told herself. "You wanted this and now you got it. Don't screw it up. Don't act angry or defensive. Let him do what he wants." Cynthia opened up her mouth. "Is this who I think it is?"

"Cynzhia, jou know it's me!" Blitzwing said from the dark and cold surroundings. "After all, I have ze loveliest singing voice of any Decepticon! And vhy did ve stop singing? I vas having so much fun!"

"Oh, yeah… It's you alright. Where are you at?"

"I'm here! Open up jour optics!" He laughed. "Jou're so amusing, Cynzhia!"

Judging by where his voice was coming from, she could guess he was hiding in a patch of woods a few hundred feet away from the road where she was standing. Cynthia sprinted, stumbling every once in awhile.

"Don't walk or fly away from me!" she said. "I have to talk to you about something."

"Is zat so?" Icy's soft voice replaced Random. "My pervious conversations vith jou have led me to love jour company."

The sarcasm in his voice was heavy but Cynthia paid no heed to this. She needed to talk to him while she still could. They were in the middle of nowhere with the closest house being a mile away across the other side of the valley. Both happened to be in the same place at the same time once more and she was going to take advantage of it. Cyndi certainly wasn't going to let her fear and defensiveness ruin it all too.

Two minutes later, she made it into the woods. She hadn't heard him speak since his last comment and everything was locked in an ungodly calm again. The only thing she did hear was her heart pounding in her body from running through the deep snow.

"Blitzwing, please."

"Jou said ze 'p' vord!" Icy was mocking her now. "Did someone teach jou manners?"

Her first instinct was to snap back at him but she restrained herself. Even though her eyes adjusted to the dark, Cynthia still couldn't see much.

"I come in peace," she said. "Like I said, all I want to do is talk."

"And vhen did jou become so brave, organic?" It was Hothead's turn to belittle her. "I have to give jou some credit if jou vant to talk to me now."

"Where are you? I can hear that I'm going in the right place but it's so dark I can't see…"

Her question was answered when she walked right into his giant, metal foot. Cynthia fell onto her back, seeing stars in her eyes for a few seconds. As her head was turned up to the sky above her, she could see the glow of his ruby-colored optics. He was staring down directly at her.

"Just open up jour optics…" He said with his arms folded across his chest.

"In the dark I can't tell the difference between you and a tree until I run into you…" Cynthia said, ashamed of herself.

"Have jou come here to force me to sign a contract regarding us never crossing paths again?" Icy insinuated.

Cynthia stood up, brushing the snow off her body. Blitzwing kneeled down, gazing at her intently as if he was trying to read her thoughts. Swallowing hard, she summoned up all her strength and courage.

"No, there're no contracts here," she reported. "I wanted to talk to you as I've said before. That's all."

"I knew it!" Random cackled. "Jou can't stay avay from me now! Jou find me irresistible!" He winked flirtatiously at her. "Am I right or am I right?"

She couldn't dam up a tiny laugh and an even tinier smile. Cynthia could feel some heat fester in her cheeks.

"Sorry, it's not because of that," the woman said.

"I should just smash jou like ze insect zat jou are!" said Hothead. "But I vant to listen to vhat jou have to say."

Cyndi leaned up against a tree for support.

"I realized I was quite rude," she started, "and…" She rolled her eyes. "Okay, I admit it: I was a rude bitch to you. I reacted very defensively towards you and from that defensiveness, I was crude to you in our conversations. From what I could see, all you wanted to do was talk, especially at the mall. I was freaking out because I was afraid of you. Then I started to taunt you…" Cyndi shook her head in a disapproving manner. "That wasn't wise. I treated you like scum and yet you saved me from the truck and it was a choice entirely up to you. You had every justification to let me die but I didn't." She felt awkward. "I wanted to talk to you so I could say I'm sorry, Blitzwing. I also wanted to thank you for saving my life. I did this because I think it's the right thing to do… But if you don't want my thanks or apologies, I understand because we're enemies. If you want to crush, kill or destroy me in whatever way, have at it. I knew what I was getting myself into."

"Jou're still scared of me and yet jou followed my voice here," said the red face. "Jou must be stupid and brave." He smirked. "Jou have guts after all, Human."

"I know… Talk about a lamb at the sacrificial altar."

"Vell, I suppose it's only natural," Icy tapped a finger on his chin. "Jou're not used to talking vith Decepticons or being in zheir presence for zat matter. I must commend jou for jour bravery, Ms. Preston. No ozher Human vould villingly face me like zhis and ask for my forgiveness for her past actions against me. I applaud jou."

"Thanks…" Cyndi pictured this to be a much more different scenario. So far, she was ecstatic with how things were going. She rubbed the back of her neck. "No more hard feelings, I hope… Listen, I'll leave you alone. We'll still pretend we don't know each other so people don't get suspicious thoughts. We ought to just go about and continue on with our own lives."

"But I vant to know more about jou!" Random nearly yelled. "Jou're brave and insane! I love it!"

Blitzwing scooped her up into his servo and sat down in the snow. He brought her up to his face. Cyndi didn't know how to react so she sat motionlessly with a tense expression on her face.

"I accept jour apology!" he declared. "I have a vonderful idea: let's be friends!"

"Right now, I just realized I'm afraid of heights," Cyndi said almost inaudibly. "Please put me down."

"Don't be such a sparkling!" Hothead thundered. "Jou're scared of me and jou're fine!"

"If I'm going to be in your hand, can you make sure to keep me in it if I fall out in a state of disorientation?"

"Ja, vhatever…"

"I'm not too trusting of that comment due to the tone of your voice. Can I just…"

She stopped herself before she could say 'go home'. Cynthia figured he ought to have his way so he'd be content. Not only that, she didn't want to stir up his wrath anymore. As the seconds went by, she started to regret her decision to confront him.

"Oh, dear…" Cyndi breathed.

"Vhat's vrong?" asked Random.

"Uh, nothing. I'm nervous with heights, remember?"

"Jou know, I heard zat in order to cure a phobia, one must face it," said Icy.

"Heh, isn't that funny? I'm getting two cured for the price of one! And something tells me you're enjoying my fear again too much."

"I don't know vhat jou're talking about, Cynzhia. Vhy vould I relish jour anxiety?"

"Vengeance, sadism, boredom… Lucky guess." Blitzwing wore a tiny smile. A chill ran down the organic's spine. "Am I going to die?"

"Zat depends, femme."

"In other words, yes."

"Vhat do jou zhink?" said Random.

"No… Hopefully?"

"Jou'll just have to see." Hothead wasn't revealing anything either. "Ve Decepticons aren't very predictable… Ve attacked ze Autobots yesterday to keep zem on zheir toes."

"Yes, that's why I'm going to have a freakout! You want revenge! Apologies weren't enough…" Cyndi sighed in defeat and despond. "Whatever, I'll take it."

"Ah, ze Human has accepted ze inevitable! Don't vorry, it von't be zat bad."

Without warning, Random showed up. Giggling like an evil toddler, he assumed his aerial vehicle mode. Cynthia found herself sitting in the pilot's seat. The seatbelts around her came to life. They slithered across her like snakes and they pinned her into the seat. With a click, the belts fastened themselves, ensnaring her completely.

"Bl-Blitzwing!" She sputtered. "What are you doing?"

"I have my revenge and jour phobia gets cured," Icy revealed rather causally. "Ve both vin."

"No, you're winning and I'm losing! These seatbelts are going to cut off blood to my brain!"

She could feel the belts loosen ever so slightly. Now Cynthia felt like she could breathe better.

"Jou'll be fine," he assured.

"Easy for you to say," she grumbled.

Blitzwing chuckled at her snide remark.

"Jou make it difficult, my squishy friend!" said Random. "Have fun vith it!"


	8. How to Survive Your Triple Changer

**Greetings everybody! Thank you for the last reviews/alerts/faves as always, my lovely readers :D Okay, I have one tiny comment about this chapter: there may be some possible OOC-ness. I don't know for sure if it is or not so I'll let you decide when you come across it (it may even stick out like a sore thumb who knows). I'm just acting paranoid again though probably. Enjoy the new chapter! **

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 8 How to Survive Your Triple Changer

In half a second, they were off the ground and hurtling through the night sky. Cynthia screeched at the top of her lungs as he quickly climbed through the air. Her fingers dug into the seat's armrests with such ferocity her knuckles were snow white. Violently, she thrashed around in her seat like an alligator with a rope around its jaw. The terror stricken woman was ready to punch her way out of the cockpit window and thrust herself out, plummeting to the earth thousands of feet below in order to escape.

"This isn't fair!" she complained. "Please, put me down! I said the 'p' word!"

"Attention passengers," Random spoke, "zhank jou for flying Air Blitzving today! Sit back, relax… And hold on for jour life!"

He laughed wildly. Blitzwing spun around madly through the air, performing all sorts of aerial stunts. Cyndi's screams didn't cease and neither did her attempts to escape at whatever costs. She kicked her feet, hitting various controls.

"Settle down!" Icy demanded.

"No, you cut it out, you giant metal jerk!" Cyndi fought back.

"Must jou act zis vay? Is it really necessary?"

"Yes, I want to live! I want my feet on the ground, where I belong!"

However, he continued to climb despite her pleas. As they ascended, somehow, the stars seemed brighter. The moon grew larger. Cynthia discovered it was a little harder to breathe and her ears were beginning to pop.

"Do jou not see jou are in good servos?" he asked.

"Are you kidding me?" she raved. "Tell me how far we are off the ground!"

"Ve are approximately fifty zousand two hundred eighteen feet off ze ground."

"That's like nine or ten miles, Blitzwing! That's way out of comfort zone! Forget being polite, put me down on the ground, now! If you go any further, we'll end up in space for God's sake!"

"Space is many miles avay since ze Earth's atmosphere is so dense…"

"Shut up, I know! Do not correct me now!"

"Cynzhia, it's such a lovely evening," Random said softly. "Vhy don't…" Cynthia screamed in frustration. "Jou have a big mouth!"

"Blitzwing, I will not tell you for the umpteenth time… Put me down! I can scream, curse, kick, fight and be as obnoxious as I want because I'm having a meltdown right now! You're not listening to me because you don't perceive me as a threat! Is this what you do for kicks? Do you abduct Human girls and take them on a roller coaster ride from Hell?"

"Ooh, look! An airplane!"

Even through the tinted glass of the cockpit window, Cyndi could see an airliner jet about a mile away. Her eyes widened in horror. She shook her head and she somehow became more hysterical than she actually was.

"Tell me right now what you plan on doing!" she commanded.

"I'm gonna go say 'hi' to all zhose organics!" Blitzwing replied. "Don't vorry, I von't blow it up! I like scaring people instead!"

"No, just fly away please! I promise I'll shut up if you leave them alone!"

Ignoring her bribe, Blitzwing flew parallel to the plane. He flanked it and slowly came in closer to it. Cyndi nearly pressed her face up against the glass so she could get a better view of what he was planning on doing.

"Don't get too close!" she reminded. "Don't kill those people!"

"Relax, Cynzhia!" he said light heartedly. "I'm a good flier… Even zhough I can't fly in a straight line!"

"Do you have an 'off' button? Or how about a set of directions?"

"Jour mom came vith one!"

He howled in manic laughter like a hyena. Cynthia shook her head and cradled it in her hands.

"You are so immature…" she said lowly. "I can't believe you just dropped a 'your mom' joke. How stupid!"

Blitzwing came so close to the plane, Cynthia could make out the faint glows of light that came from the series of windows spanning the length of its body. Desperate to make him stop and to save herself by any means, Cyndi pounded her hand on the cockpit window.

"Hey!" she screamed. "Please, let someone hear me! I'm stuck in Satan's jet! Call the Air Force to have them save me!"

"Zhey can't hear jou!" said the carefree persona.

A little boy on the plane placed his face up against the window, making contact with Blitzwing. There was a huge smile on his face and he looked totally enthralled to see a fighter jet fly alongside so closely to the plane. He bounced up and down in his seat.

"Isn't zat cute?" Random gushed. "He looks like one of zhose little Earth beasts… Oh vhat are zhey called..? A squirrel!"

"That's nice," Cyndi said miserably, realizing she truly was at his mercy. "He's a rodent to you. That makes me what? Let me guess: a lab rat."

"Jou're a mouse because jou're so tiny and cute!"

"That won't work now…"

Growing bored already with flying alongside the airliner, Blitzwing broke away from its side. He didn't fly any higher but he kept streaking across the sky at a swift rate. Cyndi was sitting slouched and bitter in her seat.

"Please!" she implored him. "I'm gonna be sick!"

She heard him gasp.

"Hold it down!" Icy said sternly. "I forbid jou to expulse biological slop!"

Cyndi saw a chance to potentially end this ride. She was a little dizzy but she wasn't terribly ill. Although she was no actress, she decided it was time to take matters into her own hands and win.

"I can't!" she said, feigning her illness. "Your flying is making me sick! I'm gonna puke! Geez, I shouldn't have eaten that greasy Chinese food for dinner too!"

"Don't jou dare, Cynzhia!" He raised his voice. "Suck it up!"

"Put me down now or I will puke all over your interior! It's slithering up my esophagus now!"

"Jou vill hold it down, now!" Hothead finally said something.

As soon the fiery persona took over, the jet abruptly transformed into a tank. Metal shifted around her and yet Cyndi still remained restrained into the seat. Her eyes watched in amazement at this metamorphosis from an aerial to ground vehicle. Then, they began to fall to the earth at a frighteningly accumulating rate.

"What the Hell is wrong with your brain?" Cynthia wondered.

"It's called a processor!" Hothead corrected her. "Don't speak to me in zat voice! Jou can talk to ze ozher two in zat vay but not me!"

"I don't care who I'm talking to right now! I want to descend to the ground alive and in one piece! I don't want to die tonight! I just turned twenty three and I'm not ready to perish just yet!"

"But isn't zis fun?" Random asked. "Ve fly high up into ze sky and zen ve fall down! How about ve take a dive into ze lake?"

"Are you kidding me? You'll kill us both if you fall from so high up in the sky! You're made of metal but you'll fall into a billion pieces and I'll get flattened like a pancake!"

"Ve'll be fine! I promise!"

"Promise? Screw promises! I want action!"

"I agree and I von't take a chance!" Icy returned.

When this personality took over, the tank turned into a fighter jet once more. Before they could crash to the ground, Blitzwing sharply pulled up, averting a possible disaster. Cynthia threw her hands onto her face and laughed, rejoicing at his actions.

"Thank you, so much!" she sighed. "Blitzwing, I beg you… No, I implore you to bestow mercy onto me and spare me and my digestive system from this turmoil." The woman made sure she was speaking especially genteel and proper to appeal to him. "Please do not fail to acquiesce my request."

"Of course, Ms. Preston," he answered. "Vhy didn't jou say so earlier? A gentlebot vill never neglect a femme's polite vords."

Cynthia's right eye twitched and she growled.

(Fifteen minutes later…)

"Ugh, alright…"

Cynthia collected herself and stood up on her feet. She no longer felt weak due to her frayed nerves and air sickness. To be sure though, she took a few deep breaths of air into her lungs. In her whole life, she never thought she'd miss good old solid ground so much for the ten minutes she was in the air with Blitzwing.

"Are jou done being a drama queen?" Hothead asked.

"The real question is, are we even?" Cyndi turned around and faced him. "Do you still have the burning desire for revenge? What other horrible things are you going to make me bear?"

"No, ve're even," Icy smiled slyly. "I vould have to say it vas satisfying and sveet."

"Good for you, bad for me. But I guess the world can't constantly revolve around one person."

"No, it vas good for jou too, Cynzhia!" said Random.

"Call me Cyndi. Eh, actually it doesn't matter I guess. People call me by whatever comes to their minds first… And how was it good for me? I thought I was going to burst a blood vessel from screaming so loud."

"Jou don't seem scared of me anymore!"

Cyndi did suddenly notice that. As she looked at him sitting on the snowy earth, she didn't feel fearful. Strangely, she felt somewhat protected having a thirty foot tall robot talking with her.

"Whaddaya know," she shrugged. "Maybe it's because I'm used to you… As strange as that is. However, I know better than to underestimate you."

"I have no quarrel vith jou, Cynzhia," said Icy. "Ze Autobots are my issue. To be blunt, I do not see jou as a zhreat or enemy. Ze only Humans I vould try to eliminate vould be ze ones who vere actively vorking vith ze Autobots to destroy me and my brezheren. From vhat I can gazher from jou, jou are a passive force in zis conflict happening here on Earth. All jou seem to be is a bystander. I haven't harmed jou because of zhose reasons."

Cynthia had to take a minute to absorb all he said there. Her face contorted to an expression of confusion. Blitzwing happened to notice that puzzlement.

"But that makes no sense," she said, analyzing what he just told her. "You don't care about Earth or my race…"

"Jou're right, I don't," said Hothead. "I'd razher kill an Autobot zhan a Human anyday zhough. It's more challenging and satisfying."

"However, the Autobots have said they will protect my planet and my race from you. I can understand what you're saying about some things but there are some other factors that make me feel like a complete dunce right now. When your leader tells you it's time to destroy the Earth and its people alongside it, what will happen to me?"

"I'm sure Megatron vouldn't mind me keeping a pet!" said Random. "I promise I vould take good care of jou, Cyndi! Jou're my favorite organic!"

"No… I have a feeling you'd obey him and crunch me like I was an ant. After all, you even said Humans are like ants."

"Tell me, vhat makes jou zhink jou know me like jou vere my own mozher?" Icy had a competitive edge in his voice.

"I do not want to fight you nor will I for that matter, Blitzwing. I am only saying you're a Decepticon. I'm telling the truth. It's in purple and white on your chest. Truly, I am grateful for your mercy and you saving me from being crushed. I don't know why you like me enough to even be civil to me and I'm still trying to figure that out."

"It's jour bravery, Cynzhia. Jou are braver zhan jou zhink jourself to be. I know jou have been vanting to fight me desperately at times even zhough ze odds are not too kind vith jou…"

"You're evil." She swallowed hard. "You can't hide that from yourself or anyone else with a brain."

"Jou don't like me?" The pumpkin face sounded offended and hurt.

"No, no, no! It's not that! Look, Blitzwing… I find you to be a very interesting, unpredictable, humorous, and charming, uh, robot. I'm starting to like you more the longer we spend time together. We're just on the opposite sides of the board."

"So jou vould prefer an Autobot to me?" Hothead was becoming incensed. "Vould jou prefer an Autobot jerk or a Decepticon who treats jou better zhan he should?"

"You're trying to pick a fight with me! I'm not stepping into that! I'm not fighting with you!"

"Vhy? I vant to pick a fight vith jou!"

Talking like to Blitzwing was like, well, talking to Blitzwing… All reason was sucked into a black hole, never to be heard of or seen again. It was a vain effort to try to make anything clear to him.

"But I don't!" Cynthia literally screamed. "I want to live! Picking a fight with me will result in a very messy death for me! I'm a fairly down-to-earth kind of girl and I will not be reduced to a gaggling loon by bickering with a thirty foot tall metal man! And I'm not answering your question from earlier too!" She exhaled loudly. "I came here to apologize to you and not debate!"

"You're fighting with me right now," Random smiled largely.

Cynthia felt like she was going to cry in frustration right in front of him at that exact moment. But she strictly forbade herself to wear her heart on her sleeve in front of him and potentially risk more teasing and merciless verbal harassment. She bit her lower lip so hard she thought she was going to break skin.

"He makes my brain hurt on a legendary magnitude," she thought inwardly. "I hate his metal guts like no other. If I was as big as him, I'd make him feel my unholy wrath. I swear, I will get him one way or another. I should've never apologized!"

"Vhy so serious?" the black and red face wondered, shattering her internal conversation with herself.

"I want to go home," Cyndi said glumly. "May I please go home and sterilize my brain?"

"Oh, I see," Icy said smugly. "Do jou need to run back home?"

Cynthia snapped internally. Now, there was going to be absolutely no restraint. The fear was gone. All that was left was pure bile and fury.

"In speaking of home, did you think it was funny to stop by my apartment and freak my sister out?" she yelled.

"Vhat are jou talking about, Cyndi?" Random asked. "Are jou crazy?"

"Says the giant robot with three faces in his head! Don't lie to me! You came disguised as a man and you stood out in the parking lot, glaring at her through my window like a somewhat creepier version of Edward Cullen!"

"I didn't do zat," Hothead said truthfully. "Vhy vould I go to jour home?"

"I don't know, maybe to act like a jerk! Did you get the note?"

"Vhat note? I never got one."

"Really? Then who was the man in the parking lot?"

"How should I know?"

"Maybe it was your twin brother Blitzkrieg!"

"I don't have a twin brozher!"

"You are a liar! Stay away from my apartment and my family or I will officially destroy our truce!"

"Are jou zhreatening me?" The blue face sounded a little taken aback.

"I am! I am sick of cowering! I've had it! Now you better heed my warning or I will tell the Autobots EVERYTHING!" She smiled triumphantly. "Before I part, I have one more thing to say to you… I love you, Blitzwing."

He gawked at her, wondering if she had gone crazier than he. Cynthia relished his confusion, pleased that she had said what she said. Genuinely, she didn't love him but she only wanted to bewilder him through the sheer lack of reason in her statement.

"Yes, that's how I feel when I talk to you," she said, observing the astonished look on Icy's face. "I can only draw a blank. Goodbye forever."

Without another word, she turned her back on the Decepticon and proceeded to walk back to her car. The young woman couldn't help to feel extremely satisfied by what she did in retaliation for the horror ride in the air and for annoying her to her breaking point.

She could only walk about twenty feet or so before a giant foot came from the sky, blocking her path. Cynthia halted in the nick of time before she could run straight into Blitzwing's stabilizing servo. Defiantly, she tilted her head upwards to look him straight in the optic. While she was very amused, he looked extremely displeased.

"Ooh, did I push someone's buttons wrongly?" she clearly taunted him.

"Who do jou zhink jou are?" Hothead roared. "Who gives jou ze right to act zat vay to me and valk avay like nozhing happened?"

"Me, Cynthia Rose Preston. That's who!"

"Jou're a puny, stupid Human! Zat's vhat jou are! I am Blitzving!"

"Blitzwing, the retarded Decepticon…"

"Jou zhink zis is a joke?" Icy fumed. "Jou are sadly mistaken!"

"You, as a whole, are a joke. I can just imagine how your fellow Decepticons see you."

"For jour information, I am feared and vell respected vithin ze Decepticon ranks, Cynzhia. I zhink jou are ze crazy one considering jou are talking to me like zis."

"Maybe I did lose a little of my sanity and my IQ because I'm being exposed to your idiocy. Did you ever take that into consideration?"

"Tventy one point six, Cynzhia…"

It was Cynthia's turn to be vexed by what her company was saying. She wrinkled her nose.

"What the Hell are you talking about?" she demanded.

"Tventy one point six," Icy answered, folding his arms across his chest. It was his turn to wear the triumphant grin now. "I vould vatch myself if I vas jou."

"Cut to the chase, Hans."

"Zhree letters: B, M, I."

Cynthia's eyes flared. Her lower lip trembled. She became even angrier if that was possible at this point.

"Aww, HELL NO!" she thundered.

"Oh, yes," He laughed. "Yes, I just did!"

"You called me fat! How dare you! I admit I have a few extra pounds of flab but I am nowhere near that chubby!"

"I vas just giving jou a friendly varning. I easily calculated jour height and made a fairly accurate estimate of jour veight judging from jour shape."

Cynthia's face was beet red from embarrassment. She couldn't believe it that he actually got it right (which was the creepy thing but she attributed to his accuracy to the fact he was a robot). It tore her apart to admit it, even within the vicinity of her mind, but he had bested her. She was at a loss for words. Once more, she felt like a mindless, stultified lump of humanity.

Blitzwing could see this expression of defeat plastered on her face. He grinned, proud that he had avenged himself and utterly degraded her. From studying Humans in his pastime, he discovered the females were especially conscious and sensitive about their weight. Now, he was glad he decided to use that discovery against Cynthia and shame her.

"Jou lost!" Random proclaimed. "Better luck next time!"

"There won't be a next time," Cyndi glowered.

She simply walked around his metal foot, preferring to ignore him all together. Her head was hung low and she hadn't felt so negative in awhile. Cyndi couldn't even bear to look at him at all. The only thing she could stare at was the cold snow.

"Jou're giving up?" Icy jeered.

"Yes, I lost," she answered softly. "I'm going home now and when I get there, I'm going to rummage through my medicine cupboard for heavy duty laxatives."

"Good luck vith zhat!" said Hothead. "I can't vait to cross paths vith jou again! It'll be a surprise to see jou skinnier!"

"Bye, Blitzwing. Rot in Robot Hell."

"Bye-bye, Cynzhia!" Random waved to her as she walked away.

(…)

"I cannot believe the nerve of that titanic idiot!" Cyndi angrily thought as she began to drive away. "He made me look like a fool, I made him look like a fool and then he bit back three times as hard and made me the idiot of the evening! I hate him! I should call the police and get this stupidity done and over with! I bet he sees me as a joke! Well, we'll see about that! But for now, I need to calm down…"

Snow was starting to fall heavily since she left the grove of trees where she and Blitzwing were. He hadn't pursued or spoke to her since she told him to rot in Hell and she was thankful for that. Cynthia said nothing to him after that parting either. For all she knew, he was still probably in those woods gloating over her defeat but she could care less. She was moving farther away from him and that alone was sweeter than chocolate.

"Let's see what's on the radio. Some music will cool me off."

Cyndi turned the radio on. She toggled with the tuning knob, surfing through the various stations. Any sort of distraction was lovely as long as she ceased to think about the crazed triple changer.

"Ah, here we go."

She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. Cynthia bobbed her head to the beat of the music.

"..._I hear the secrets that you keep, when you're talking in your sleep._"

"Aw, screw you, radio!" she vented.

Cynthia immediately left the frequency. Growling irately, she desperately tried to look for something else that didn't remind her of stalkers. The song practically screamed Blitzwing to her.

After twenty seconds of browsing, she settled for a channel. She shook her head, giving up on searching.

"..._Why can't we be friends, why can't we be friends, why can't we be friends..?_"

"No music!"

Hitting the power button roughly, the radio shut off. Angrily, Cynthia stared at the snowy road. She applied pressure to the gas pedal. Now, she just wanted to go home and beat the stuffing out of her pillow. Then she had a better idea: she planned on drawing a picture of her favorite Transformer and then throw darts at it. The hardest part of that would be to choose one of the three faces to eviscerate.

She could hear the snow crunch beneath her tires. The whole car creaked and moaned as it moved through the frozen precipitation. Her anger was still controlling her and Cyndi pushed her vehicle to dangerous limits.

"Come on, you piece of junk! I don't need you to ruin things for me even more!"

To her horror, she began to skid and lose control of the car. The automobile was at the complete mercy of the elements now. Furiously, Cyndi pumped her breaks to try to slow down. This proved futile and the car kept moving on its own accord and by the whim of the snow.

The car veered off the road and down into a gully. Then her vision went black.


	9. Trust Amidst Evil

**How did I get this done so fast? I'll be updating this story possibly twice a week because I've been having very good ideas with it and currently, I'm writing chapter 15. Thanks for the alerts/faves/comments as usual too! This chapter was a little difficult to write in my opinion but I think it turned out alright. Enjoy!**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 9 Trust Amidst Evil

(…)

"Oh, God… My spine!"

Cynthia painfully came back to the world of the living. Her whole body was wracked with aches and discomfort. She wanted to open up her eyes but her strength was sapped. Her fingers twitched to life steadily. With a wheezing cough, she shuddered and curled up a little.

"Oh, no…" she thought. "I went off the road. I lost control! I'm in the ditch!"

However, as her senses came back to her slowly but surely, she could tell she wasn't slumped over in the driver's seat. Instead, Cyndi was lying on her stomach. Judging by the surface she was recumbent on, it was hard and chilly. The frigid nip stole her breath away and she coughed again. This arctic revelation started to scare her.

At last, her eyes opened. She could see she was lying on a piece of gray metal. With effort, she forced herself to sit up on her butt. She rubbed her head. Her vision was still blurry but her eyes quickly adjusted after a few moments.

When they adjusted, she could observe her surroundings. Cynthia had to repress a scream. Her hands immediately went over her mouth.

As it turned out, she was lying on a giant nightstand that was set up next to an even bigger bed. Only a few feet away from her on that same nightstand, was her car which was totaled brutally. Lying in the bare, metal bed was Blitzwing. He was lying on his back with his head turned away from her direction.

"This is an unholy nightmare…" she whispered. "This isn't real! I gotta get outta here!"

Carefully, she crept over to the edge of the nightstand. Cyndi was about fifteen feet off the ground. It was almost triple her own height but at this point, she had no qualms about taking a brave chance and jumping. She was ready to try anything to escape if this was indeed reality.

"My cell!"

Cyndi fished through her back pocket for her cell phone. Luckily, it didn't take her long to locate it. She considered herself blessed when she saw it was intact and not ruined from the impact of the crash. With trembling fingers, she flipped the phone open.

"Oh my God…"

There were approximately twenty three missed calls from Amanda. There were also an additional twenty three calls from Darien too, making a grand total of forty six missed calls. Upon further investigation, she discovered the exact date and time of the current day: January 9th, 1:57 am. She had been unconscious for over twenty four hours. Her eyes widened, disbelieving that this actually was the case. For a moment, she briefly wondered if she was trapped within some disturbing reverie.

"They're looking for me!"

She immediately dialed Mandy's cell phone. Cyndi stood up and paced around frantically. There was no dial tone or ringing at all.

"No, no, no, no, no! This can't be happening! Don't do this to me!"

When she realized there was virtually no reception and thus no hope of a redeeming phone call, she threw her device down in frustration. Her eyes began to moisten and her heart felt like it was being constricted. Accepting her rotten luck, Cyndi leaned up against the remains of her destroyed vehicle. She buried her hands into her face and cried.

"What did I do to deserve this?" she bemoaned. "This all has to be some crazy, warped dream! I'm in a hospital, not in Blitzwing's…" Cynthia gulped and shuddered. "Bedroom… Awkward."

"Hey, turn zat frown upside down!" Random said cheerily.

Cyndi's sorrow was promptly replaced by blind fury and rage once more. Her hands retreated away from her face.

"Oh, zat's a scary face, Cynzhia!" he commented.

"I demand you to tell me what the Hell is going on now!" she commanded. "And you better give me the truth too!"

"Jou should be grateful but of course, jou're not," said Hothead. "I saved jou again."

"How? I'm in your bedroom! I have forty six missed calls from my siblings and I bet they called the police about my disappearance! My life was perfect before I had the greatest misfortune to meet you! I had very little issues with my existence and now all this crap is happening! I didn't ask a thirty foot talk robot space Nazi with three faces to ruin my life!"

"Vhat's zat one Human phrase?" Icy pondered. "'Shit happens'?"

"Yeah, I might as well change my middle name to that!"

"Jou're velcome…"

"I'd be better off in that ditch where I crashed into!"

"I agree," Hothead said bitterly, "ungrateful organic."

"I happened upon jour vehicle by chance," the blue face explained. "I vas on my vay back to my home but I got sidetracked vhen I saw tire tracks in ze road. I vas following zhose tire tracks and I noticed zhey veered off ze road abruptly. I looked into zis ditch and saw a car vith a Human woman in ze driver's seat, knocked unconscious. Ze snow vas coming down heavily and jou vere being covered very quickly. Jour vindshield vas shattered and jou vere knocked unconscious from ze crash. Frankly, I believed jou vere at ze complete mercy of ze elements and luck. I took pity on jou and brought jou and jour car back here for safe keeping. I zhink jou vould be frozen and quite dead if no action vas taken."

"Why couldn't you drop me off at the city limits where there's a greater population of people? Someone would've found me and called an ambulance."

"I didn't feel like risking an encounter vith zhose Autobots," Hothead told. "Plus, I couldn't transform into one of my vehicle modes vhile I vas holding jour car vith jou in it. So, I did it ze easy vay and came straight here."

"So… You saved me. Again…"

"Yeah, pretty much. Jou don't seem happy about it."

"I…" She sighed and shook her head in disappointment. Cynthia felt shame overcome her. "Once again, I'm indebted to you it seems. This is the second time I've been saved." The woman felt disgusted. "Well, I have to apologize again and thank you for saving my pathetic butt. However, I think I need to die more than ever now considering our most recent fight too."

Blitzwing's faces swapped. Icy scowled at her a little and it seemed he didn't know whether to accept her apology again or brush her off. True, she did accurately pluck at his iron nerves when they conversed in the woods a night ago. To a certain extent, he liked it because no Human had ever done that and got away with it. Yet, he let her get away with it. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, all three of his personas began to develop a respect for her because of her bravery. He also liked to watch her overact at every little thing too and that was always a good laugh. Now that he thought about it, she was the only organic he truly liked to a certain extent.

"Vhatever," he said shortly, "I forgive jou. Jou are cowardly, ungrateful, too judging and paranoid."

"Ouch," said Cynthia. "But I know you're right."

"However…" His austere expression softened a little. "Jou're not completely loazhly."

"I guess that's good to hear." She looked around the area nervously. "So this is your bedroom?"

"Yes," Random said excitedly. "Do jou like it?"

"It's nice, big and… rocky."

"Zhanks! I live here vith Lugnut, Starscream and my master, Megatron!"

Cynthia's face turned deathly pale. Never in her whole life did she suspect a great misfortune such as this would come about. She was in the Decepticon base, cut off from the rest of the friendly world. Worst of all, she was stuck with Blitzwing as her roommate. Then she considered herself lucky since it was the triple changer she bunked with instead of the other three. Also, she had no clue what they were like. At least she knew Blitzwing.

"I'm in a nest of Decepticons?" she lost her composure.

"Duh!" said Hothead, accentuating her daftness. "Now shut up before zhey hear jou!"

"But on second zhought, zhey are all in recharge," said Random. "But ve still have to be quiet so zhey don't kill jou!"

"Asleep you mean?" asked Cyndi.

"Yes," Icy nodded, "now listen, Cynzhia, because zhis is very important. It's obvious and vise to see jou cannot stay here any longer. Jou are finally avake and now is ze time for action. Jour family is undoubtedly seeking jou out due to jour disappearance and I'm sure jou're more zhan ready to go home. Now, I'm sure jou can imagine zhat jour presence is unvelcome here at best. I vould undoubtedly be severely punished for sheltering jou."

"Are you proposing an escape plan of some sort? If so, I'm in."

"Yes, but zhere's more zhan zhat. In order for our plan to succed, ve have to establish somezhing."

"What? Let me hear it."

"Trust."

"Trust?" Cynthia wrinkled her nose. "That's it?"

"If ve don't trust each ozher, zhen ve fail," Hothead said simply. "Ve'll probably both die. I'm not ready to die yet!"

"Ve're much too young to die, Cynzhia!" Random complained.

"But do jou understand vhat I'm saying?" Icy returned.

"Yeah, I do," Cynthia understood clearly. "So we need a sense of mutual trust?"

"Absolutely. Do jou trust me to get jou out of here safely? Can I trust jou to do vhat I say to make zhis vork?"

"Well, you did save me twice and you're planning on doing a third time…"

"I need an answer now," the gruffer side said. "Are ve going to save ourselves or not?"

"Hey, I'm in!"

"I do have a sliver of honesty and honor in my hide," said Icy. "I do see ze gravity of ze situation if zhere is no mutual trust and cooperation. I know my vay around here naturally and vhat everyone's schedules are like."

"What do you plan on when we get out?"

"I vill take jou to jour home. It's as simple as zhat, Cynzhia."

She nodded her head.

"I trust you, Blitzwing," she said seriously. "You scratch my back and I scratch yours."

"Vonderful!" Random rejoiced. "But ve have one tiny problem."

"What's that?"

"Jour car. I'm surprised I didn't get caught bringing it in last night. I got really lucky! But ve can't take chances now! I have an idea!"

Blitzwing's hand reached out over her head. Cynthia flinched, half expecting him to smash her with it. Instead, he grabbed her car and drew his hand back to his body. Her eyes widened when she saw his mouth open up. She grabbed her hair with both her fists.

"No!" she begged. "Don't eat my car!"

It was too late. The already damaged car was further destroyed when the triple changer bit it in half. Cynthia watched in agony as he chewed up the glass, metal, plastic and other components that made up the automobile.

"Did jou say somezhing Cyndi?" he asked. Bits of metal and other crunched debris flew out of his mouth. "Do jou vant a bite?"

"I could've had it fixed!" Cyndi complained. "You're devouring my sole mode of transportation!" She saw it was a lost cause though. "It's doomed now… You can eat it. Maybe I'll tell my insurance agent a giant robot ate my car and I'll be compensated with a new one."

Unhappily, she watched as he finished up his late night snack. Cynthia cringed when she saw him shove the other half into his maw and pulverize it with his jagged teeth. She almost felt physically ill when she was almost certain she could hear it crash into the robotic equivalent of a stomach.

"Zat vas delicious!" he savored.

"My car…" the Human whimpered.

"Now I must apologize," said Icy. "I cannot alvays restrain ze ozher two."

"Well, karma's a bitch. I had it coming I suppose. Let's just focus on getting out of here."

"Here is vhere ze trust comes in," said Hothead.

Cyndi didn't dare to display any signs of uneasiness and doubt. Truthfully, she did believe in him but his words made her feel uneasy.

"I'm ready for it," she said.

"I von't be able to hold jou in my servos or have jou sit on my shoulder," he informed her. "Zat's stupid and reckless."

"So, I zhought zat jou'll have to hide inside me!" Random revealed.

"WHAT?" She was hoping she heard him wrong. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"

"Yes, vell, zat's vhy I needed jour trust," Icy said matter-of-factly. "It's a bit risky but as long as jou remain calm, it'll vork."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Cynthia was incredulous and terrified. "What do you mean by in you?" Her eyes grew larger. "Oh my God, am I going to see my car one last time? No, it can't end this way!"

"By ze Allspark, no!" He looked visibly disgusted and sounded like it too. "I vouldn't do zat to myself! Zat's deplorable!"

"Well, how?"

"I vill turn into a jet and jou vill remain in ze pilot's seat. Zhen I vill assume my robot mode."

"That doesn't sound so bad at all really."

"Zhere's ze possibility jou may be crushed."

"Right… However, I was at the risk of being crushed every single time I've been with you. But I'm still alive."

He smirked at her.

"It's good to see jou haven't overacted over zat," said Blitzwing. "Zat's a surprise."

"I'm just used to you I guess, I don't know," Cynthia threw her hands up into the air. "What more can I do anyway? My car is gone and I'm in unfamiliar and extremely hostile territory. Right now, you're my savior."

"I'm just glad jou're not in one of jour scaredy-cat moments," Hothead grumbled. "It's good to see jou're not freaking out over zhis."

"I can't afford to be afraid if my life is on the line."

"Good sport," Icy nodded. "Now vhen I turn into zhis form, jou should be hidden beneath ze tinted glass of ze cockpit vindow, completely unharmed. I vill transform slowly to make sure jou vill be alright. If jou remain quiet and unmoving beneath ze vindow, no one vill be able to see jou or even believe jou're zhere."

Warily, she looked at the darkened glass. The thought of being squished like an insect by all the shifting metal and gears made her blood curdle. Yet Cyndi wanted to escape alive and he had won her trust.

"Okay, let's go for it," she set aside her fears.

"Good, because zat's ze only plan I could come up vith anyvay," said Hothead.

"Here ve go!" Random said optimistically. "Just relax, Cyndi!"

She swallowed hard. Her eyes shut and she put her life into his servos. Cynthia was more than aware he could easily kill her if he wanted to reverse their pact. But at this point, she somehow didn't believe he'd go back on his word.

While her eyes were still closed, she could feel his fingers encircle her form. Cynthia steeled herself and didn't flinch at his touch. She just prayed all would go along swimmingly.

Phase one of their plot began. He transformed into his aerial vehicle mode. There were no issues at all and it ended with her in the pilot's seat as he predicted. Her bluish gray eyes opened up, seeing that all was well. Lightly, she grasped the arm rests.

"Okay, I'm not dead," she said.

"Zat's good," said Icy. "Now remain calm. Don't panic."

"I'm trusting you like you wanted me to, Blitzwing. Now let's help each other out."

Cynthia kept her eyes shut again, preferring not to see anything. All around her, she could hear gears shift and metal creak. She could feel his body change. It was such an eerie and strange feeling and experience to feel and hear the transition. The position of the cockpit shifted and she felt herself beginning to slip out of the pilot's seat.

Before she could yell out his name to warn him of her predicament, the seatbelts came to life. They quickly caught her and fastened her into the seat.

"Thank you," she said softly.

He didn't reply.

Another few moments went by and his metamorphosis from jet to robot was complete. Cynthia had lived and everything went according to plan.

"Oh, thank God for that," Cyndi exhaled.

"See, zat vasn't so bad," said Random.

"Now give me a few minutes and ve vill both be out of zis base and safely from ze ozhers," said Icy.

"I'll be as quiet as a mouse," she asserted. "Just don't forget about me."

Cyndi sighed and tilted her head back. She relaxed herself and allowed Blitzwing to take care of everything. As she relaxed, her aches and pains she sustained from the wreck returned to her. Then she remembered she hadn't looked at herself in the mirror in over twenty four hours. She could only imagine what she looked like currently.

However, she couldn't be at ease for long.

As she listened closely to nothing but silence, Cynthia heard a pulsating, crackling throb. Intrigued, she placed the side of her head against the seat's headrest. Little did she know that she was literally right on top of his spark chamber. Faintly, she could hear the fizzling of the electricity that consisted of his spark.

Oddly enough, it was soothing. It was deep and slow. In a way, it was like music. More than anything else, she was reminded of a Human heartbeat. She thought it was a bit startling yet fascinating to discover that the two different types of hearts actually sounded so familiar despite their obvious contrasting traits.

"His heart," she thought to herself. She smiled, disbelieving she got close enough to hear the sparkbeat of a Decepticon. "Amazing."

"Blitzwing!"

Cynthia nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the abrasive voice. Blitzwing himself seemed just as startled because he stalled. She held her breath, daring not to even move. Right away, she assumed the worst about who the owner of the voice might be.

"Yes, Starscream?" Icy asked.

She exhaled in relief. From what she remembered about Darien's Google search, Megatron was the leader. When she saw this was Starscream, she was happy to see this wasn't the head honcho. The brunette squinted her eyes in an attempt to see through the glass. However, since the lair was already a bit dim, it was difficult for her to detect Starscream. All she could make out of him was a large dark silhouette.

"What're you doing up out of your berth at this hour?" he asked.

"Nozhing, I vas just taking a stroll," Blitzwing answered. "I zhink I have gotten enough recharge vhere I've become a little restless."

"Really?" Starscream sounded a little skeptical. "Are you sure that's it?"

"Yes," Hothead said curtly. "How about jou?"

"That sounded vaguely like a challenge. Must you be reminded of your place? There's a reason why I'm your superior."

"Ja, ja, ja, I know!" Icy sounded annoyed. "I vas just minding my own business."

"I didn't see you come in last night. As a matter of fact, Lugnut or Megatron didn't see you either. For a few moments, we thought you disappeared off the face of this scrubby planet… Are you sure there's nothing going on?"

"Of course not!" said Random. "I don't keep secrets very vell anyvay so jou'd know!"

"Don't screw this up, please!" Cynthia pleaded inwardly. "I will come back and haunt you if you get me killed!"

"I'm just merely curious, that's all," Starscream chuckled. "No need to be so defensive, Blitzwing. I can't recharge in peace either. I'm happy just to wander around or maybe fly off into the night to kill some time like you do at times." He paused. "Say, I have a brilliant idea."

"Vhat?" the pumpkin face scratched his helm.

"Why don't we both head out for a little flight? It'll be bot to bot quality time."

"No, I'm fine," Icy cut in. "I just vant to go out alone."

"What happened to the good old days before the Great War, Blitzy?"

Cyndi was massively interested by their dialogue. She listened in very closely. Even though she had no clue of what was going on really, she could feel in her marrow this was getting juicy. The woman felt fortunate that while the glass obscured her vision, she could hear their voices clearly enough.

"Zhey're gone, Star," Blitzwing said hollowly. "And don't call me, 'Blitzy'. Vould jou prefer me to call jou by ze name of 'Star' instead of 'Starscream'?"

"Ah, but they live on vividly and happily in my memory cores," Starscream said, sounding a bit nostalgic. The seeker had a tiny grin on his faceplate. "Frankly, I can call you whatever the Pit I want." He sighed. "You may go. Just don't get into any trouble, will you?"

Without saying another word, Blitzwing turned around and left Starscream alone. Just by the way he was moving, Cyndi could feel he was pretty miffed. To save her own skin, she made a mental note to herself to pretend as if she never even heard their conversation.


	10. Second Chances

**Hello readers! Thanks for the reviews/alerts/faves as always. Okay, this chapter was an odd one to write. There might be some Blitzwing OOC-ness but hopefully it's not awful. It's also a little boring but hey that's plot development. Please enjoy the update!**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 10 Second Chances

"Vell, it looks like I got jou home vithout asking jou for directions," Hothead stated proudly.

"That's because you decided to hold my driver's license after you spooked me in the park," Cynthia reminded, "you great big stalker."

After Blitzwing had exited the lair, he assumed his aerial vehicle mode and flew Cynthia over to where her apartment complex was. The flight to her home was silent and a bit awkward and neither wanted to say much of anything. Cyndi was dwelling on the odd conversation she heard between Starscream and Blitzwing. The triple changer, on the other hand, was thinking about anything as long as it didn't pertain to the content of the conversation he had with the air commander.

About half a mile away from her home, he landed in the woods and decided to walk alongside her in his holoform. At first, she felt uncomfortable walking with this particular disguise of his mainly because of the bad memories she made with him while he was in that form. Now, she was relieved she had him as her company since it was almost three in the morning. Cynthia didn't doubt that there might possibly be some miscreants hanging out in these dark and snowy woods such as criminals or other malcontents of society. If someone decided to jump her, she hoped he'd at least give them a bloody nose like the bimbo at the mall. Perhaps his mere presence would discourage any troublemakers from harming her too since he looked like a tall strong man.

The two stood out in the outer fringes of the complex's parking lot. To Cyndi's slight joy, there were no cop cars present. She wasn't too keen on having a dramatic welcoming anyhow. She looked at her bedroom window, recalling when Mandy saw the man Cynthia assumed to be a disguised Blitzwing.

"Please tell me the truth," she said, facing him.

"Ze truth about vhat?" Blitzwing asked.

"Were you standing here in the parking lot? Did you scare my sister?"

"No," Icy answered, "zis is actually my first time being here on ze complex's premises. I vasn't ze man she saw. Neizher did I get ze note jou said jou zhrew out."

"Are you being completely honest?"

He nodded his head. Cynthia actually felt a little anxious at this. Now she had another problem to worry about and it wasn't Blitzwing.

"Okay, then," she said. "Listen, I want to thank you again. You saved me three times now and I'll say that's pretty damn impressive. I, uh… Don't mean to ruin your image or offend you since you're a Decepticon but I expected much harsher treatment."

"I have bigger zhings to fry," said Hothead. "Vhy kill jou vhen I could crush an Autobot's helm? Like I said earlier, killing Autobots are a lot more fun!"

"Of course, I'm not asking to be murdered… Forget it, it's no big deal."

"Jou're velcome, Cyndi!" Random exclaimed. "Jou're my favorite organic! Maybe I can be jour guardian since I'm saving jou a lot!"

"Oh, that'd be a sight…"

"And I must zhank jou for jour cooperation," said Icy. "Jou remained calm vhen Starscream confronted me and he suspected nozhing…" He frowned a little. "Vell, he did, but ve managed to get avay easily. I von't keep jou any longer, Cynzhia. Jour family members are concerned for jou. I must return to my base so I don't raise any more brow plates."

"I understand completely. Thanks for everything. I promise I won't tell anyone about this."

"I appreciate jour confidentiality. I vill reciprocate and do ze same." He smirked at her. "Farevell, Ms. Preston. If ve should ever meet again, I vill avoid crushing jou."

"Sounds like a done deal. Farewell."

Before she could walk over to the stairwell, he abruptly turned on his heels and Blitzwing began to walk away from her. Cynthia turned her head, watching him disappear into the dark snowy woods where they emerged from. For some reason, she was half tempted to call his name out and stop him. There was a part of her that truly wanted to repay him for his mercy. Yet she was all too aware of the ferocity and callousness she knew he could very well wield at any moment he deemed necessary. It was so strange and unexplainable to her though…

Since he had saved her those three times and had conversed with him during their encounters, she no longer felt threatened by him so much. Cyndi knew this was potentially deadly thinking but it was what she felt. To her greatest confusion, she found herself developing a respect for him that felt vaguely like a gesture friends would extend to one another. To her, Blitzwing wasn't a threat to her and thus, he didn't actually seem so bad as an individual. Yes, he was terribly unstable but on the more positive side, Cynthia believed he'd be a complete sweetheart if he wasn't a Decepticon. Not only that, he didn't kill her although she didn't doubt he was compelled to do so a few times earlier on.

He was walking farther away now. Once he'd get far enough, he'd dissolve his holoform. She had one more thing to say. She wasn't ready for him to leave just yet.

"Wait!" she yelled.

Cynthia ran over to him. Blitzwing stopped and turned around to face her. Judging by his expression, she could see he wasn't expecting her to ask him to stop. He didn't seem annoyed or angered. If anything, he seemed curious.

"I think we ought to start over on better terms," she explained, not knowing exactly how to put things. "Our previous conversations have not necessarily been friendly. Now that I have spent some time with you and have gotten to know you a little more, I want to give you another chance…"

"Are jou saying ve should become friends?" Icy asked, raising a brow.

"Um…" She was starting to blush excessively. "Yes. I mean, only if-if you think it's necessary… I get it if you don't."

He laughed out loud. Cynthia felt like the fool of the hour.

"Ah, ze little organic femme vishes to make up and by my friend!" Hothead mused. "Zat's hysterical!"

"Yeah, I see this is really awkward," she said lowly. "I guess I'll see you around whenever."

Now it was Cynthia's turn to walk away from him. Her face felt like it was redder than before. She felt so embarrassed, she felt like she was becoming physically ill.

"Now jou vait for me!" Random said.

He jogged over to her to intercept her. The seemingly real Human male grabbed Cyndi's wrist. As if they were both dancing on a ballroom floor, he spun around and gently pulled her to him. His arms came around her and held Cynthia against him.

She began to panic. He told her this was a holoform yet she could feel a very solid man holding her. Then she remembered Blitzwing said he could give it some mass to make it more realistic but it was still startling. He felt very cold and he smelt faintly of steel and oil.

"Woah, what's up with this?" she said. "Please, let me go!"

"I vant jou to vait for me now," Random smiled.

"Well, I'm here, trapped in your arms."

Suddenly, he let her go. Cynthia assumed a swap of personalities was to blame for this. She took a few steps back to feel less invaded. She brushed a piece of hair out of her eyes. The holoform gazed on her with solemnity.

"I'm sorry, I cannot control ze ozher two at times," Icy apologized. "But vhat jou are saying is true?"

"Forget it," she said, wanting to abandon her original plan due to the embarrassment. "Let's forget what I said. I think I had enough…"

"I accept jour proposal."

"Wha..? What?"

"I vould be interested in zat, Cynzhia."

"But it's a secret between ze two of us and no one else!" Hothead said sternly. "Don't tell anyone!"

"Really?" Cynthia was so relieved. "Great! I don't want to sound corny…"

"It's not every day a Human vants to be my friend," Random giggled. "All of zem run avay and scream! Besides, jou're a femme!" Some of his giddiness died. "All ze Cybertronian ladies zhink I'm annoying…"

"It's not every day a Human vants to befriend me," Icy explained. "If anozher organic asked me ze same question jou did, I'd laugh at him and valk avay. But I can see jou vish to make matters better between us. I must confess jou hold my interest and once jou aren't screaming and zhreatening me, jou're a fairly decent individual, Cynzhia."

"Thanks." She rubbed the back of her head. "I guess that's a good compliment."

"Jou better appreciate it because I don't like complimenting people," Hothead grumbled. "But I vonder if it really is vorth it to have jou as a…" He seemed to hesitate with the word on the tip of his glossa. "Friend…"

"Don't listen to him!" Random pushed the aggressive persona aside. "I'm very happy!"

"I'll seal my lips about this," Cyndi swore. "It'll be between you and me and no one else."

"Very good." Icy sounded satiated. "Ve vill discuss more later if jou don't mind, Cynzhia."

"But when will we meet again? We have to be smart about being friends, right?"

"Let me figure out how to do zat. Jou may go about vith jour business, Cynzhia. Remember, I know vhere jou live so I can see jou vhenever I vant."

"My sister and brother may not be very receptive to you because you're a complete stranger to them. But as long as you maintain that holoform and not show up as a robot at my door, I think we can fool them."

"I'm not zat reckless!" Hothead spat. "Don't take me for a fool!"

"I never said anything about you being stupid."

He folded his arms.

"Fine zhen," he said, turning his head away from hers. "I can't believe I'm actually allowing zis."

He walked away from her at last, muttering beneath his nonexistent breath. Cynthia watched him widen the gap between the two of them, a little confused by his mannerisms. She then reminded herself that this was Blitzwing she was dealing with after all. For Pete's sake, he had three personas in one head!

Shrugging it all off, Cyndi walked over to the stairwell at last. She climbed the concrete steps, wondering just what had happened in her absence. Without a doubt, she was certain Amanda and Darien had called the police regarding her disappearance. In all actuality, she was half expecting a police car to be in the parking lot to watch after the two of them in while the authorities were looking for her.

When she made it to the top of the stairwell, a revelation came over her. Cynthia slapped her hand against her forehead. She groaned out loud, disbelieving what was going on.

"Aww, shit!" she thought. "I have to think up of a good story to explain where I've been for twenty four hours without mentioning Blitzwing! They'll never stop hounding me about what happened and I really can't find another explanation for what happened. I can tell some lies and some truths… I just hope he doesn't find out I had to break our pact." She shook her head. "He'll kill me, I know it! But what more can I do? I can't lie to my siblings." Another realization struck her. "I have to tell them our car got eaten too! This can't get any worse!"

The young woman silently walked over to a door. On that door was her apartment number: thirty three. Cyndi slid her fingers into her pocket and pulled out her keys. She stuck them into the lock. A click sounded a second later and she turned the knob.

"Guys," she said softly.

She pushed the door open further. The whole apartment was in darkness. However, the only sign of life was in the form of the TV that was on. Before she could even fully enter the living room, she could hear the TV. According to what she heard, it was a late night infomercial or paid program of some kind.

"_Are you sick of all that annoying, nasty and unsightly flab? Is your muffin top embarrassing? Did you wish you had that sexy, itsy-bitsy bikini body? Do you miss that little black dress? Well, fuss no longer, ladies! You can have that nice, slim, tight body!_"

Cyndi rolled her eyes. B.M.I. came to her mind immediately.

"I hate that metal man," she growled.

Quietly, she entered the living room. Immediately, she saw Darien and Amanda sprawled across the loveseat. They were leaning against each other, lost in sleep. There was a quilt spread over them and it seemed as if they were sharing it prosperously (too bad it couldn't be reproduced while they were awake).

"Mandy," Cynthia spoke, "Darien. I'm here!"

The sixteen year old boy stirred upon hearing her voice. Mandy on the other hand appeared to be almost dead. Darien's pale green eyes opened up laboriously. He appeared to be suffering from sleep deprivation.

"Cynthia..?" he said weakly. As this reality registered in his groggy mind, he became miraculously alert. "My God, Cynthia!"

Before she knew it, Darien leapt out of his seat. He threw his arms around his eldest sister, holding her in a crushing embrace. Cynthia felt immobilized like a rodent in a boa's coils.

"Big Sis, you're alive!" he wept tears of joy and celebration. "It's you! You're here!" He hugged her as if she was a giant teddy bear. "I thought we lost you forever!"

Amanda groaned as if she was a reanimated corpse on the hunt for brains. She wasn't happy to hear her little brother whooping in glee. At the moment, she wasn't aware of what was transpiring exactly.

"Go back to bed," she ordered. "We were up all last night calling Cyndi… When we get some rest, we can continue looking for her."

"Mandy, Cyndi's alive and here!" the boy rejoiced. "Wake up! She's here! I'm hugging her!"

Just like Darien's case, Amanda suddenly seemed to be filled with vigor. She rubbed her eyes, disbelieving her sister was in the living room. She wrapped her arms around Cynthia too, crushing her even more.

"You are so friggin lucky!" Mandy said. "I love you! But I demand to know who gave you roofies!"

"Roofies?" Cyndi gasped, the air being squeezed out of her. "I wasn't drugged!"

"Then you have some explaining to do! We thought you were a goner! I was half expecting to see a news flash about a hobo finding your body in the river!"

"I'll explain if you let me go and stop compressing the life out of me!"

In unison, the younger folk released their grip on their substitute mother. Cynthia took a few deep breaths, relishing this fresh intake of air.

"Where have you been?" Amanda angrily demanded. "You scared and worried us so badly, Cynthia!"

"We called the police at around one, a few hours after you left," Darien explained. "They were looking all around the city and in Detroits' outskirts. A few hours ago, the cops found a ditch with a few car parts, shattered glass and a license plate in it. The license plate belonged to our car. But no car was there… And you weren't there either."

"Did you call Mom and Dad at all?" Cynthia asked.

"No, we didn't want to call them and have them freakout. We wanted to try to handle it on our own and not have them worry. They'd kill us anyway if they found out you disappeared and we let you drive out in the night."

"Not only that," Amanda cut in, "there was a giant footprint found by the ditch where you crashed into. There were no Autobots hanging out twenty miles outside of Detroit on January 7th. So, I put one and one together and concluded a Decepticon was out there."

"You're out of your mind," Cynthia stated. "Look, I'm alive!"

"Where's the car, Cyndi? Did it eat the car?"

"No…" Cynthia gave up. She was in no mood to weave an intricate web of white lies. "Who the Hell am I kidding? Yes, he ate the car."

"'He'?" Darien inquired. "There're four of them."

"Look, I'm alive and the car is in a Decepticon's stomach. I'm alive! That's all that matters right?"

"You will tell us what happened!" Mandy demanded. "You will tell the truth! We are your siblings! We love you and care for you! You always want to know what's going on in our lives but you always push us out of yours!"

"We won't tell anyone else," Darien swore. "It'll be between us. If that's the case, we gotta tell a real good lie to the cops to close the case."

"I swerved off the road and went unconscious," Cynthia said slowly. She still wanted to lie a little just to keep them in the dark about the real truth. "The roads were icy and I lost control."

"Okay, continue," Amanda said with her arms folded across her chest.

"Before I go on, you two better listen up and listen up good. What I'm going to tell you is strictly between us and no one else. If you tell a soul about what I'm going to say, I will smother you in your sleep. Got it?" Both the girl and boy nodded in understanding. "Good. Here's what happened in a nutshell: I got saved by a Decepticon, taken to a base where I woke up at and got dropped off."

"Are you sure you don't have roofie residue in you?" Darien asked.

"No, I do not! Don't even say stuff like that! I'm telling the truth and I'm pretty sure I'm not high or delusional in any way, shape or form! I asked myself whether I was or not a few times but I see I'm sane for the most part."

"I believe it," Mandy said shortly. "I believe it because of the footprint the cops found. Which one took you and the car?"

"Blitzwing…" She was almost expecting him to magically manifest in the living room and murder her for uncovering their secret. "He was the one that decided to eat the car too."

"Blitzwing? Blitzwing…" The blonde Preston mulled over that name, trying to remember which 'Con he was exactly. Her eyes widened a few moments later, realizing who exactly it was. "Holy crap! The one with the three faces!"

"Him?" Darien said. "Mandy, Cyndi ran into him almost two days ago in the city, remember? She was by his foot!"

"So let me get this straight: he took you out of the ditch, took you to his home and then brought you back here?"

"Technically, yeah," Cyndi confessed.

"How is that possible?" the boy pondered. "He's a Decepticon! Aren't they supposed to kill squishy little organics like us?"

"Apparently, yes, but I'm exempt for some reason."

"This is really, really confusing," Amanda mumbled. "I have more questions than answers!"

"Then how about I stop this narrative before it can conglomerate into an even bigger mass of bewilderment?"

"No! I never told you to stop! How'd you escape the Decepticon lair?"

"I made a deal with Blitzwing when I regained consciousness. We earned each other's trust and I made it out of that cradle of filth without being seen by any of his friends. He flew me over here and… Well, here I am."

"This is weird," said Darien as he ground his jaw. "Cyndi, how are you alive? That's what I want to know. Those Decepticons are bad news."

Cynthia wasn't too keen on revealing more than what she felt was required to her brother and sister. She really didn't feel like explaining more about her past experiences with the triple changer either.

"I don't know, I guess I'm lucky," she lied.

"I said, don't lie!" Amanda barked. "Decepticons just don't save people for no reason and then let them chill in their base and take them home."

"For the love of God, get the Hell off my case! Blitzwing's crazier than a lemming! Maybe he couldn't decide what he wanted to do because he doesn't get a chance to get up and personal to an organic! Why are you asking me all this? If you want answers, why don't you swerve off a road and hope he comes by and whisks you away? Oh, yeah that's right, I forgot! We don't have a car anymore! I have to buy a new one with the tuition money Mom and Dad sent to me!"

"Mandy, don't press matters more," Darien urged. "Cyndi's home. She looks alright. She says she's okay, so drop it. I don't want any fighting. I'm just happy she's alive."

Amanda gave Cynthia a calculating stare. The youngest Preston lady was more than certain her best friend was withholding information about the past twenty four hours. An evil Transformer had taken her sister from the folds and security of the Human race and she couldn't abide by that. Mandy also got the creeping suspicion that somehow, Cyndi was siding with the three faced mech. Grudgingly, she had to agree with Darien that she ought to just be happy Cynthia had even returned. However, she was determined to get more information out of her in time after their lives settled back down.

"Okay," Mandy nodded, "he's right. I'm only overacting because I was so scared. You understand, right?"

"Of course," Cynthia embraced her sister. "You always were fiercely defensive of family."

The phone rang.

"Darien, go get that," Mandy commanded. "I'm busy hugging Cynthia."

"I bet its the cops checking in on us," Darien predicted.

The boy lifted the phone up out of the receiver. He pressed the 'talk' button on it and answered the call. He lifted it up to his ear.

"Preston residence, this is Darien speaking," he sounded remarkably professionally despite his character.

"Hey, kid," Captain Fanzone spoke, "I was just checking in to see if you and your sister Amanda were alright."

"We're okay, thanks. Cynthia came home about five minutes ago."

There was a surprised silence on the police chief's line. Cynthia and Amanda cloistered near their brother so they could hear on the conversation as well.

"Really?" Fanzone said after a few seconds of being quiet. "Is she alright? Is she acting funny at all?" He grunted in annoyance. "You know what, let me talk to her if you don't mind."

Without saying another word, Darien handed Cynthia the phone. She didn't ask him any questions because she was listening in with Mandy. Cyndi cleared her throat and put the phone up to the side of her face.

"Hello?" she said.

"Ms. Preston," Fanzone addressed, " this is Captain Fanzone of the Detroit Police Department, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Since your brother and sister called twenty four hours ago regarding your disappearance, the police have been searching for you. How did you manage to get home?"

Cynthia couldn't work up on explanation. All she could do was draw a blank. Off the top of her head, she couldn't remember if it was against the law to lie to an officer about one's disappearance even if they were the one that had vanished. At the moment, she didn't care and the only thing that mattered was trying to cover up what she could.

"On second thought, you can answer the questions when I arrive down at your apartment," Fanzone resumed. "I will be down to meet you and your siblings alongside with the paramedics so they can check to see if you're alright."

"Okay, thank you, Captain Fanzone," Cyndi said. "I suppose I'll be meeting you shortly then."

"Before I hang up with you, I want to ask you one thing."

"Of course, sir."

"Do you remember anything about the past twenty four hours or so?"

Cynthia swallowed hard. It pained her to lie but she couldn't tell the truth. She feared Blitzwing's wrath and she didn't want to betray him for all the times he had gave her mercy.

"No, I must've been unconscious," she said. "I remember veering off the road and then waking up in the woods by the apartment complex about ten minutes ago."

"Miss, I want to forewarn you right now that we have some evidence that suggests you and your vehicle were carried off by a Decepticon. We believe it's very likely that while you were unconscious, you were abducted by them and held for some amount of time before you woke up in the woods. I just ask you to remain calm and I will see you very shortly."


	11. Lie Games

**Hey everyone. Thanks for all the love that you so graciously bestow in the forms of reviews and other various actions :D This chapter... BORING. But it had to be done. I PROMISE it will get better in the next chapter and more things will start happening which will really jumpstart the plot. Please enjoy!**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 11 Lie Games

(apartment complex- 3:30am)

Cyndi patiently sat down at her kitchen table as a paramedic placed his stethoscope against her back. The cold nip of the metal gave her goose bumps but she shrugged it off.

"Can you take deep breaths, please?" he asked.

The woman did as he requested. She took deep breaths, pumping air into her lungs. Her eyes shut and all she wanted to do was go to bed and forget about the flurry of activity going on around her. To a certain extent, she even wished she died in the ditch so Blitzwing wouldn't leave the footprint which would then snowball into what things were now.

Cynthia finally managed to look at herself in the mirror after she had ceased her conversation with Fanzone on the phone. She had a gash across her cheek but it had scabbed while she was unconscious. There was a bruise on the right side of her skull but it was partially hidden by her hairline. Although she was a little beat up, Cyndi was just relieved that as far as she could feel, there were no internal injuries. Her memory was intact despite the crash although her spine and the back of her head had a persistent and dull pain in them as a result of the impact.

"Alright, you sound good," the paramedic reported. "Your heart and lungs sound fine. Can I just shine a light in your eyes?"

"Yes, that's fine," Cyndi said.

He shone a little light into her eyes, checking them out to see if there was anything amiss with them. The luminescence bothered her a little because it actually intensified the pain in her skull but she didn't want to complain. She could've sworn she saw the veins and other blood vessels that lined her retina due to the light.

"Okay, thanks," the man said. "You seem to be in relatively good condition, ma'am. Personally, I think you ought to go to the hospital for further tests."

"That won't be necessary," she debated. "If I suddenly and violently become ill, I can call 911."

"I just advised it due to safety precautions and to your puzzling case. You said that you remember veering off the road and then waking up in the woods a little while ago… Miss, I think it would be wise to visit the hospital for an x-ray or CAT scan just to see if everything's sound internally. You may have suffered a mild concussion."

"I know my name, my age, my family member's names, my social security number and other important pieces of information. My brain is alright. I promise I will go to the hospital if I feel I'm getting ill. More than anything else, I think I need to get some sleep."

The paramedic nodded his head, reluctantly allowing her to do as she pleased. He walked out of the kitchen. A few seconds later, Fanzone entered with Amanda and Darien in tow.

"So, I assume you're not going to the hospital?" the chief asked.

"I'm fine," Cyndi asserted.

"Aren't you a tough cookie?" He sat down across from her at the table. "I know it's a little late but is that alright if I ask you some questions?"

"That's fine. I'll try to help you out crack this case as best as I can."

"So, you absolutely cannot remember anything from the time you crashed into the ditch up to the time when you woke up in the woods? There's no little memory of any kind that's floating around in the back of your mind..?"

"No, I don't. I remember swerving off the road because it was icy. Then I woke up in the woods."

"As I told you over the phone before I arrived here, we have a reason to believe you were abducted while you were unconscious. You and your car completely disappeared off the face of the planet. We knew it was your car because we found your license plate there."

"Yes, you said that. I don't remember anything about it. And trust me, I would've remembered the experience too especially if what you said kidnapped me really kidnapped me."

Darien secretly glanced over at Mandy behind Fanzone's back. Amanda nodded at him and bit at one of her fingernails. Cynthia observed her siblings' apprehension, knowing fully that she was lying to Fanzone. She just hoped they would follow her ruse and not interfere with the story she had laid out for the police chief.

"Okay, well, I'm going to ask you some more questions if you don't mind," the husky officer said. "Firstly, did you ever come across any hostile extraterrestrial robots before?"

"I had an encounter with one downtown a few days earlier," Cynthia revealed. "Specifically, I almost got turned into a pancake. My brother and sister can testify to that."

"Do you remember which of the Decepticons almost killed you?"

"Truthfully, I don't know. I just know one of them almost stepped on me and I was more focused on living rather than engaging in chitchat with them."

"They're four of them and their names are Megatron, Starscream, Lugnut and Blitzwing. Do any of them sound familiar to you?"

"It was Blitzwing we ran into," Darien spoke up. "The one right by us had three faces and I know it was him."

Fanzone turned around to face the boy. Cynthia glared daggers at her brother, furious at him for jumping into the conversation that was meant to be between her and the chief. Darien had a difficult time of concealing his horror upon seeing his eldest sister's glare but he managed to pull it off.

"Just saying…" he mumbled. "That's the robot we saw."

"Well, I guess your brother answered the question for you, Ms. Preston," Fanzone said, turning back to Cynthia. "Now, what reasoning do you think they had to kidnap you?"

"You're asking the wrong person," Cyndi replied, suppressing her rage. "I was unconscious for over a day so I have no clue what went on around me during that time. Neither do I know what a Decepticon would want me for. Other than the time I crossed paths with Blitzwing in downtown, I never had the misfortune to meet one."

"You see, I've started working closely with the Autobots lately because the Decepticons seem to be staying out of the public eye for some reason. Their appearances seem to be dwindling and the Autobots have been wondering if there's some sort of plan going on with those 'Cons. I've just been going around asking ordinary people to divulge any information they have on these particular robots so we could have a lead of some sort. I hope you can see that my interest was piqued especially when we discovered a giant footprint right by where your car was. The Autobots weren't by your location during the time you crashed so we assumed a Decepticon abducted you while you were unconscious in your car. The footprint was also larger than a regular Autobot's so that was our second reason to believe one of them was out there."

"I don't doubt it was a Decepticon that abducted me. But why would one kidnap me and then drop me off in the wooded lot behind the complex?"

"I don't know other than perhaps you had something of theirs that belonged to them and they wanted it back. However, they could've killed you after they got what they wanted. Yet here you are alive and well…"

Cynthia's pulse began to climb a little. She crossed her legs and folded her arms across her chest. At the back of her mind, she prayed Fanzone didn't suspect she was lying.

"My sister goes to college and watches after Darien and I," Amanda stepped in to the conversation. "She doesn't get into trouble with anyone or anything. She was just really unlucky to cross paths with them. But Cyndi's home and I'm just happy for that."

"Exactly," Darien added. "This is a friggin miracle. If she was held by the Decepticons, there'd be no hope for escape for her. She's alive and here. Let's just hope she never gets a free ride from one of them again."

"Perhaps it would've been a good idea to head to the hospital for a better examination," Fanzone suggested. "While you were gone for a day, they could've done all sorts of experiments on you. It's also possible that they erased your memory and that could explain why you don't remember much."

"My big sis wasn't experimented on or had her memory wiped." Darien scoffed. "This sounds like some kind of crap science fiction movie."

"Look around you, boy: science fiction became reality when giant alien robots arrived on our planet!"

"Touché."

"Ms. Preston, you are extraordinarily lucky. Since your memory may have possibly been wiped, it's also a possibility you may recover your memories of what happened. If such a thing does happen, I urge you to contact me. You may possibly learn the location of the Decepticon base and that would really help out the Autobots."

"I'll let you know if anything like that does happen," Cyndi nodded her head. "I want some answers just like you." She paused. "I do have one question."

"Say it."

"Will I be compensated with a new car by any chance? I think it's possible a Decepticon ate my car. I didn't find any trace of it when I woke up."

Fanzone seemed a little caught off guard by her question. For a few seconds, all he could do was look at her with a quizzical expression. Then he rubbed his moustache.

"Yeah, I guess," he said. "I wonder if the insurance companies in this city have policies about Decepticons or Autobots destroying people's cars..? If you complain to your agent enough, you ought to get a new vehicle."

"Is there anything else we ought to discuss, Captain Fanzone?" Cyndi pondered.

"No, not for now, Ms. Preston. Thank you for your cooperation and congratulations for surviving whatever Hell you went through."

He shook her hand and rose out of his seat. Fanzone exited the kitchen and walked to the door. A few officers who were hovering in the living room followed him out of the apartment. Moments later, the three siblings were left alone.

"Darien!" Cynthia hissed lowly. "Why did you say it was Blitzwing?"

"Hey, chill!" Darien raised his hands defensively. "We don't want to lie about everything to them!"

"Well… I guess you're right on that."

"You're one lucky lady," Amanda proclaimed. "Thank God you played the unconscious card."

"From a certain point of view, I was telling the truth. I really was unconscious for over a day. But I lied to him about how I escaped the base."

"Okay, let me ask you one question right now and I don't want a half-assed answer. I am under the impression that you're defending Blitzwing. Are you defending him?"

Cynthia sighed heavily.

"I am only defending him by not telling Fanzone it was he who brought me back because if I told anyone we met and allowed to let me go, he told me he was going to kill me. I'm sure he'd target you two too and I can't afford to have that happen. That's why I didn't want to tell you guys about the incident earlier. I just want to protect you."

"Does he know where we live?" Darien asked, a little creeped out.

"Yes."

"Oh, snap. Cyndi, how old do you have to be to get a gun permit?"

"Like that'll work. All you have to do is never speak of this to anyone. Hopefully we'll never see Blitzwing again and we don't have to deal with any more trouble that follows him. Let's just let it all go and move on with life. Darien, school starts up for you in two days. Mandy, you have a job at a grocery store to focus on. As for me, my semester starts up on the exact same day Darien has school. Let's focus on those things and only speak about what happened to me when it's just us and no one else. Understood?"

"Yeah, Big Sis," Darien said.

"Sounds like a plan," Amanda agreed.

"Good." Cynthia was satisfied with the way things were going. "Let's head to bed."

(outside)

"I'm sure the girl has no desire to speak with you," Fanzone spoke to Optimus Prime. "Besides, I don't think she'd be able to tell you anything useful either way."

"What makes you say that, Captain?" the Prime insinuated.

"Because, she doesn't remember anything from the time she crashed up to when she said she woke up in the wooded lot. Nothing, zip, nada."

"Are you sure she didn't say or mention anything that stood out?"

"She didn't dispel the mystery, that's for sure. I asked her if she met a Decepticon before and she said she ran into one of them downtown during that battle a few days ago. She couldn't remember his name but her brother said it was Blitzwing."

"Personally, I think Blitzbrain had something to do with it," Bumblebee said. "Somehow, I don't have much trouble believing he'd wait by dark roads, scare people to make them run off the road and then carry them off. I just don't understand how the girl managed to live and she woke up in the woods."

"It's a shame because if she actually remembered what happened, she'd probably be able to tell us a lot about what happened and what she saw," the head Autobot said. "It's good to hear she's alright but I agree, as Bumblebee said, I have no idea how she could've survived being amongst the Decepticons."

"If you ask me, I think we should keep her under tabs for her own protection," Fanzone said. "If she was kidnapped and then let go, something might be up with those Decepticons and they may come after her again for whatever reason. Hey, Prime, do you think they'd place tracking devices in us?"

"Uh, I'm kind of doubtful of that. I think they'd waste more time and effort on fellow Cybertronians rather than organics." Optimus had no intentions to offend Fanzone. "No offense… But it's our battle so I think Megatron would tell his underlings to go after Autobots instead. I don't think Megatron would find it worthy to expend some resources on Humans."

"That's just freaky to think about," the little yellow bot shuddered. "Captain Fanzone, do you really think that?"

"I hope that's not the case, that's all I can say," the police chief replied. "If her memory was wiped, there's a chance she may recover her memories as time goes by. I told her that if she remembers anything from that day to call me. From there, I'll tell you what I heard from the girl and you can figure out how to handle the 'Cons."

"That'll work. I really want to know what went on though. What's so special about her where she got held and then released like that? She should be squished like a cockroach!"

"No one knows and we'll have to leave it at that," said Optimus. "Only the Decepticons know for sure why they took her and then released her."

"It's late," Fanzone reminded the two Autobots. "Let's let all these people go back to sleep. We just know now to be more vigilant. If people start mysteriously disappearing in the city and then reappear, ending up with no recollection of what happened to them, we can assume something's going on."

"We'll be sure to be especially vigilant and wary during our security runs in the city now."

"And the Detroit Police Department will be on the lookout as well."

(…)

Icy smirked. His telescopic monocle focused more sharply on the policemen getting into their patrol cars and on Optimus and Bumblebee who were driving off in their vehicle modes. From under the cover of the dark woods and being as silent as possible, Blitzwing managed to eavesdrop on the conversation Fanzone had with the two Autobots who accompanied him to the apartment complex. He chuckled to himself when he saw that Cynthia had covered up her story of what really happened and had tricked the chief and the two bots.

"Vell, vell, vell…" he said to himself. "It appears Cynzhia has quite ze amount of honor by not divulging vhat really happened. Vell played, organic. Jou seem adept vith keeping jour promises even zhough jou had no obligation to considering ve're supposed to be foes."

"She better keep it a secret," said Hothead. "I'd give her a mouthful if she ended up telling ze Autobots everyzhing! I vould be laughed at and zhey vouldn't take me seriously!"

"She tricked zem!" Random cackled. "Oh, zhose Autobots don't have a lot of processor power, do zhey? I zhink I like zis organic a lot!"

"Now ve know to stay out of ze city because zhey'll be expecting us," said Icy. "Optimus Prime is right about one zhing zhough: Megatron vouldn't kidnap Humans and plant tracking devices onto zem. Not only zat, he vas also right in assuming Megatron vould razher vorry about Autobots zhan organics. Zat police chief is such a fool."

"But I like a Human!" said Random. "I vould really like to have Cynzhia as a pet! She's just so cute!"

"I'm not picking up after her," Hothead mumbled. "Humans are such a gross and messy species!"

"Zhen again, she's not my pet: she's my friend now!" The puckish personality giggled. "I have a cute, organic, little femme friend!"

"Not in zat connotation, no," Icy sounded a bit shocked. "But I am curious about her true intentions regarding zat proposal of friendship."

"She just doesn't vant to get squished by me!" said Hothead. "She's a coward so no vonder vhy she vanted to kiss up."

"Okay, so now zat she's my friend, ve have to hang out more," Random rubbed his servos together. "So, I vill use my Human holoform and visit her! She'll be so surprised to see me! I don't know about happy but she'll be surprised!"

"I'm not gonna go see her. I don't even vant to! She'll end up getting me in trouble somehow anyvay! I shouldn't be vasting my time vith pazhetic, mindless, organic femmes!"

"Never! My sveet Cynzhia vould never get us in trouble! She lied to ze police and ze Autobots about vhat happened vhen she disappeared! She covered it all up…" Random was shocked at his helm-mate's disapproval of Cyndi. "Besides, she doesn't like jou. I'm her favorite one! She zhinks I am so smart and handsome, vhich I am!"

"Both of jou shut up," Icy said lowly. "She doesn't have a favorite because she could care less."

"Jou're just jealous!"

"No, I am not. I could care less myself. I am a bit ashamed of myself zat I actually accepted her offer but I can see the nobility of her action. True, she might be acting on a tiny vhim of cowardice as she is accustomed to but I could see she vanted to make up. Zat bravery of hers amuses me and I am most certainly impressed by how she lied tonight. Her lie was simplistic yet effective. By playing stupid, she covered her tracks. Who vould have zhought zhat vould actually vork?"

"Ja, fascinating," Hothead said shortly. "She's nozhing special."

"I vant to get to know her more," said Random. "And zhen ve vill become good friends!" He snapped his fingers. "Maybe I can convince her to vork for Megatron too! She could join Lugnut and I! Lugnut von't be too happy but I don't care! Ah, I am a genius!"

"She doesn't have ze guts to vork for Megatron. She's too soft! Besides, she doesn't like me zat much vhere ve'd vork on ze same team."

"Alright, vhatever," Icy cut in, "enough talk about her. Let's just get back to base and recharge. Ve can figure out vhat to do vith our new friend later."


	12. Just Friends

**Thanks for the love from the previous update, everyone! Much appreciated! This was a funny chapter to write in my opinion because it's so awkward for the characters. Hopefully y'all will like it!**

**I**** want to reply in particularly to a review left by **blah blah**: I assure you that Cynthia isn't falling for Blitzwing just because of his holoform. I admit I shot myself in the foot with using the holoform little too much (and I know to ease up on it. However, I'll warn you won't like this chapter or 13 because the holoform will be used.). I agree with you that their original romance in LIAL was complicated but they had got through it: I pride myself over that people (including you) liked it for that. I intend to keep that "Beauty and the Beast-ish" flair. There were just new scenarios that I came up with for this rewrite that involved the use of his holoform. I wasn't offended and I'm grateful for your honesty. I do thank you for the review and I appreciate your feedback :D**

**So, please read and enjoy dear readers.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Liana the DJ. She's Gelly619's OC whom I used as a cameo for this chapter and for chapter 13 :)**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 12 Just Friends

(apartment – 6:30pm)

"Oh, so we're not boarding up our windows or anything like that?"

Cynthia laughed at Darien's comment. She turned around and faced her brother while she was finishing up steaming her curtains which framed her bedroom window. Darien leaned in the doorway, glancing out the window and observing Detroit in the distance.

"No need for it," the brunette girl said shortly.

"How strange," the boy said. "Back in December, we had to pull the curtains across the windows and bring the blinds down."

"I had a paranoid phase due to me getting harassed in the woods during the lights festival."

"Right…"

"Well, it's the truth." For as long as necessary, she was determined to deceive her brother and sister about her previous encounters with her new "friend". "You saw how freaked out I was when they startled me. For a moment, I thought I was going to get mugged."

"You thought the dudes in the woods were going to find their way back here and finish what they started?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Sis, I wanted to ask you something about when you were unconscious with those monsters. I mean, it's just me, you and Mandy in here. There's no one else."

Cynthia sighed. She turned off the steamer and ran her hand along the warm curtains. Then she walked over to her brother. Her eyes were serious.

"Preferably, I don't want to talk about it but I'll let you slide with that," she said. "What is it?"

"What was it like? You said you made a deal with Blitzwing to escape when you woke up in the base."

"I was frightened out of mind of course when I realized where I was. I woke up in his quarters with the car right next to me, totally trashed. He told me he picked up the car when he was flying overhead. He said he did that because he was curious to see what exactly Human females were like. He said he sees them run around a lot especially when he and his friends come to the city to wreak havoc and he wanted to see one up close and personal."

Darien wrinkled his nose in disbelief and confusion. He rubbed the back of his head, processing what Cynthia had just told him about this version of the encounter.

"That's really weird," he said slowly. "Correction, that's actually very creepy if you ask me. Are you sure he doesn't have a crush on you?"

Cyndi guffawed at her brother's suggestion. The thought was so abominable yet humorous. Just thinking about it sent shudders down her spine but made her laugh maniacally on the inside. A Decepticon in love with her, an organic? What a cosmic joke…

"Now what you're implying is the super creepy thing," she said. "Don't even mess with that. Why would he have a crush on me, even if he really did? We're not even the same species for God's sake!"

"You'd know more than me," Darien answered. "But how'd you get out?"

"Blitzwing said he feared Megatron would kill him if he figured out he was holding me in the base secretly. So he told me to remain very quiet and he'd take me home once we left the base."

"Did you see what was inside it?"

"No, because my eyes were shut the entire time." She had no desire to explain how she wound up beneath the tinted glass on Blitzwing's chest. "I was scared out of my mind. I never wished I had a pair of ruby slippers so badly before."

"And then I guess he flew you here and you wound up in the living room."

"Mm-hmm."

"Geez, I can see why you don't want Mandy and I to tell anyone. Everyone would say you're insane! I can't even believe it fully!"

"That's right, so let's just keep it between us three, okay? Do not ever tell the police about what really happened or those Autobots for that matter."

"Cyndi, I'm confused with something though…"

"Darien, I really don't want to talk about it anymore. Why do you insist on being so invasive? Do you have to know about every single miniscule detail about what happened?"

"Alright, alright… I remembered what you told Amanda last night anyway when she asked you if you were defending Blitzwing. You said you're doing this because you're afraid he'll kill us."

"Yes, that's exactly the reason why."

"Why don't we tell the Autobots and have them protect us?"

"No, because he'll find out and kill us. Darien, I'm serious, do not screw this up for me. I do not want to die and I'm sure neither do you if you're capable of making a reasonable deduction. Do I have to threaten you with moving back home to Greenvale where Mom and Dad are?"

Darien bit his lower lip. He shook his head.

"No, Cyndi," he replied. "I don't want to go back to Greenvale. I like living with you more than Mom and Dad. I promise I won't say anything."

(…)

"_Oh my God, they killed Kenny!_"

Amanda absentmindedly flipped through the channels on TV. A huge quilt was wrapped up around her form and she looked like a Hershey's kiss. Her eyes were sleepily observing the TV screen, not really watching any of the channels she flipped through.

In other words, she was pitifully stagnated. There was no car to drive in so she could go shopping downtown to kill time. Despite her gregarious nature, she didn't feel like chatting with one of her coworkers on the phone. The temperature outside was frigid and Mandy didn't feel like risking discomfort due to the coldness of the January evening.

She clicked a button on the remote.

"_Who's that Pokémon?_"

Click.

"_Say 'what' again! I dare you! I double dog dare you..!_"

Click.

"_If they set that android free it will be the end of all of us! NOOOO!_"

Click.

"_Get to da choppa!_"

With a huff, Mandy gave up. She turned off the TV and set the clicker aside. She snuggled deeper into the quilt and grumbled in annoyance. The young woman hated being bored more than anything else. At almost all times, she needed to be stimulated by something. Amanda loathed dull moments or quiet that endured far too long.

Faintly, she could hear Cynthia and Darien talk towards the back of the apartment where their bedrooms were. She didn't bother listening in on them neither did she really care for that matter. Her pale green eyes shut and she yawned. Mandy didn't care if she ended up falling asleep on the couch due to her sheer boredom.

Then there was a knock on the door.

She shrugged it off, wanting one of her siblings to get it rather than her. At this point in time, she was in no mood to cast off the quilt and jeopardize her laxness which she had come to embrace very quickly.

"Mandy, can you get the door, please?" Cyndi called back from her bedroom.

"Oh, fine," she grumbled. "You had to ask me… What's Darien doing?"

Miserably, she pulled the quilt away from her body. Amanda sighed heavily and walked slowly over to the door. She placed her hand on the door knob and turned it. Then she opened the door up, without even engaging in eye contact with the visitor.

"Can I help you?" she droned.

After she spoke, she at last looked at them. Her eyes widened immensely and her jaw almost dropped. Some redness seeped into her cheeks and she could feel a rosy warmth overcome her. She fluffed up her blonde hair.

"Excuse me, may I help you, sir?" she said in a far politer tone.

"Zis is ze Preston residence, is it not?" the holoform asked.

"Yes, it most certainly is, sir. I can help you happily."

"Is Cynzhia zhere? I'm here to see her."

Amanda felt utterly defeated when he said her wanted to see her sister. The look was plastered clearly on her face. She felt overwhelmingly jealous that this handsome stranger with ruby irises was asking for Cynthia and not her.

"What do you need her for?" she asked. "I can help you just as well!"

"Cynzhia!" Hothead yelled for the eldest Preston sibling. "Get out here! I'm not standing here vith zis crazy lady all night!"

"Excuse me! I am perfectly sane, buddy! Who are you?"

"I'm a friend of jour sister's," Random revealed. "Is she here, little girl?"

Mandy narrowed her eyes at him. Either she was losing it or this guy spoke in three different voices. She was half tempted to slam the door in his face even though he had to have been one of the handsomest men she ever crossed paths with.

A second later, Cynthia rushed out of her bedroom with Darien following close behind. She was completely caught off guard to see Blitzwing in his holoform at the door. For a moment, she didn't know how to react. But she couldn't remain so inert for so long.

"Oh, you're here!" she faked.

"Yes, I'm here," Hothead was losing his patience. "Now get jour coat on and let's go."

"Who the Hell is this guy?" Amanda was exasperated. "Where in the name of God did you meet him and how do you know him?"

"He's a college buddy of mine," Cynthia told her. "I completely forgot that we were gonna go hang out tonight."

"No, you ain't."

"Yes, I am, don't mouth off to me, Mandy. Watch the apartment and I'll be back later."

"Sis, you just had a huge scare last night," Darien started, "and now you're going out…"

If Cynthia could shoot out lasers from her eyes to kill people, she'd do that to Darien right then. Instead, a threatening dare which promised to turn his life into a living Hell was sufficient enough. Without saying another word to her siblings, she grabbed her purse and jacket that hung on a kitchen chair. Then she slammed the door behind her, joining Blitzwing outside.

"What a surprise," she said, quelling the anger she bore towards her siblings. "Let's walk away from this place so they don't spy on me."

The two of them said nothing to one another and they headed over towards the concrete stairwell. They walked down the steps, again not really paying much attention to their company. Cyndi couldn't help but to feel a little apprehensive and nervous in his presence.

"Jour sister is razher assertive," Icy noted as they reached the bottom of the stairwell.

"Oh, Mandy?" Cynthia was quite ready for him to speak suddenly. "Yeah, she's like that. Ignore her."

"Yes, I vill gladly do zat," said Hothead.

"What brings you here? To be honest, I wasn't expecting you to show up at my door at all. If we were to meet up again I thought I'd be plucked up off the ground and whisked away."

"I know I have to be very careful!" said Random. "I had to use my holoform to visit jou zis evening. Jou lied to ze police and ze Autobots so vell but jou may get caught next time and zat vouldn't be good…"

"You knew the police came by..?"

"I spied on zem from ze voods. Jou're a clever organic, aren't jou?"

"I should've known considering you're the biggest stalker I've ever met. I had to be clever though. I couldn't afford to be stupid."

"Zhanks for not saying anyzhing, Cynzhia!"

He suddenly embraced her, holding her in a crushing bear hug. Once more, despite the fact this was a holoform, he felt incredibly real and solid. Cynthia nearly gagged from his embrace and she could've sworn he snapped a few vertebrae in the process.

"Please," she wheezed, "weak Human here… I'm not made of metal like you. I'm nothing but carbon and water."

"Ooh, zat's right!" Random exclaimed. "Jou Humans aren't very sturdy…"

Blitzwing released her this time without his other two personalities having to step in and restrain the childish persona. Cynthia sighed in contentment, pleased to see that all her bones and organs remained intact from the powerful hug.

"So, did you miss me?" she joked.

"No, but I zhought jou vanted to tag along vith me as I go observe some organics," said Hothead.

"How nice… Where did you have in mind?"

"I zhought zat maybe jou vanted to decide for me," said Icy. "Do jou have any ideas for vhere I should go? Considering jou are Human, jou know jour own species more zhan I do."

"You could say that I have an idea but I don't know if you've been to one of these places before."

"Vell, share it."

"Did you ever hear of a place called the 'Steel Star'?"

"I don't zhink I have. Vhat is it?"

"A dance club. They have raves there and a bar. I think you'll get plenty of studying done there. But if we want to get there soon, we got to catch a bus. I would take my car but someone ate it."

(The Steel Star – a half an hour later)

The strange duo sat down at a metal table that was situated in a corner of the Steel Star. Lying on their table were glow sticks of assorted colors and a tea light in a tiny glass bowl. All around them was a flurry of activity and there didn't seem to be such a thing called privacy in the joint. The music was explosively loud and flashing lights flickered furiously. People danced around with glow sticks in their hands: their only objective was to dance the night away and sever themselves from the hassles of reality.

"I hate zis place, jou have terrible ideas!" Hothead cursed Cynthia.

"It was just a suggestion!" she defended herself. "Don't get angry at me, I was just helping out!"

"Zis noise zat jou Humans call music is so annoyingly loud I can barely even focus on maintaining zis disguise!"

"But I absolutely adore zis place!" Random half sang and half spoke. "Look at all ze pretty glowing stick zhingies! Zhey're all ze colors of ze rainbow!" He laughed cheerfully. "Come on, Cyndi! Let's go dance vith all ze ozhers!"

"Hold it up there, cowboy," Cynthia held her hands up. "Don't we want to keep a low profile? You're here to study, aren't you? You'll get both of us in trouble."

"Jou're right," Icy admitted, "I must restrain myself from making a fool of myself. It seems zat jou seem to care about my cover."

"If you blow your cover, then I do as well…"

"Ah, so jou don't care for my velfare all zat much after all."

"Uh-uh-uh… Don't twist the words that come out of my mouth."

"I'm merely only stating vhat I zhought jou said to me." He chuckled. "I can assure jou zat jou are in good servos, Cynzhia. If ve vere able to keep up zis charade so far, zhen zhere is ze good chance it can be kept going strong."

"I certainly hope so."

"Vhat happened to all zat confidence earlier?"

"It's there. Can I trust you to stay put? I'm going to go get a beer."

"One vill become two vhich vill be zhen become zhree and zhen four!" Random warned her.

"Are you accusing me of being a lush?"

"Vhen Humans consume too much alcoholic beverages, zhey have ze tendency to open zheir mouths too much," Icy said matter-of-factly. "I just don't vant zis to become sabotaged."

"I am not an alcoholic. I'm twenty three and I have a right to enjoy a beer. I deserve one considering all the hectic crap I went through over the past few days. I ought to let loose a little."

She got up from her seat without saying another word to Blitzwing. Cynthia made a beeline for the bar. She parked her butt on one of the stools and waited patiently for the bartender to finish up cavorting with one of the other club patrons.

The disguised Decepticon observed her from a distance, studying her more rather than the other Humans he originally planned to watch. His ruby eyes incessantly looked at her and he wished he could read her thoughts more than anything else at the moment.

"She's uneasy," the pugnacious persona concluded. "She's still afraid too."

"It's only natural," Icy reinforced the claim. "I suppose ze reality of being vith me is still veighing on her conscious. Humans can be mentally tortured so easily by ze veirdest zhings. Zheir villpower is not particularly notable."

"She just needs to varm up," Random decided. "Zhere is no reason to be afraid of me! I don't bite… much. Besides, any bites I have for zat organic are love bites!"

"Jou're disgusting," Hothead growled. "Don't tell me jou actually are starting to have feelings for zat unpleasant, venomous and hideous femme!"

"I just know zat she's so cute! She plays hard to get too and I like zat!" He rubbed his hands together. "I vill vin!"

"Vhat do jou have in mind?" Icy asked with some nervousness in his voice. "Jou vill not blow our cover!"

"It's nozhing much really… Just go vith my plan. I promise ve vill all love ze look on her face!"

Blitzwing lifted his head up. For a few moments, his eyes wandered around the club, looking for a particular someone. It only took him a few seconds to find that someone and he left the table.

(…)

"Musical femme!"

The DJ jumped at the voice. She blinked her green eyes in shock and twisted her head sharply to the direction where she heard the man call out to whom she assumed was talking to her. He stood a few feet away from her with his hands behind his back, looking like a mischievous child. There was a big, toothy grin displayed on his face.

"Can I help ya out, baby?" she asked, noticing he looked kind of cute.

"I have a song request," the holoform said. "Could jou please do it for me? I vant to dedicate it to my very special friend."

"Aww, that's sweet of you, honey. Can you make it quick though because I have to keep this music going for these people. We don't want to make them angry."

"Vat is jour name, femme?"

"Liana."

"Liana, I vould love it if jou played a particular song." He snapped his fingers together. "And I vant jou to do zis too…"

(…)

"Sorry for the wait, Miss. What can I get for you?"

Cynthia focused on the thirty-something year old man who was the bartender for the evening. She sat up in her seat and pulled a twenty dollar bill out of her wallet.

"What's the strongest thing you have?" She went straight to the point.

"Adventurous, are we?" The bartender asked. "What's a young lady like you want strong alcohol for?"

"I deserve it, put it that way."

"I can give you a some slivovitz or…"

"Slivovitz is strong?"

"Really, lady."

"I'll take it."

"Trust me, you'll need a shot of it. If I gave you a bottle of it, you'd end up with the worst hangover of your life next morning."

He turned his back on her and faced the glass shelf where countless bottles of vodka, tequila and other alcoholic products were proudly displayed as if they were animal heads mounted on a wall. Cynthia placed her elbow on the bar and leaned heavily on it. She didn't dare to turn around to look at the table for fear of even locking eyes with Blitzwing.

"Can I ask you a question?" she asked the bartender. "This isn't my place to say it though and considering the fact you're a stranger."

"Shoot it, lady," he said as he placed the shot glass in front of her.

"What would you consider to be a toxic friendship? Let me rephrase that actually: how do you prevent a toxic friendship from developing?"

"Maybe I shouldn't let you drink that slivovitz for your own sake."

"No, thanks. I'm a big girl, Dad."

"Chill, lady." He poured the strong alcohol into the glass. "A toxic friendship, eh? Are you in one?"

"I don't know. It's definitely weird, that's all I can tell you really." She lifted up the glass and sipped from it. "God, this stuff is as strong as bloody Hell!"

"Don't say I didn't warn you, lady."

"Cynthia Preston, are you in the house?" a woman spoke on the microphone.

Cyndi tilted her head back and swallowed the rest of her slivovitz. She coughed, failing to realize and adhere to the power of the drink.

"Ah, God, what do they want me for?" she mumbled.

"Liana's calling you out, Cynthia," the man said. "She's the DJ here."

"Are ya here, Cyndi?" Liana repeated. "There's this lovely man here who wants to dedicate a song to you!"

"Oh, shit…" Cyndi gasped. She looked over at the table, seeing Blitzwing wasn't sitting there. Her eyes widened. "I should've never left him alone!" Her hand slammed on the twenty dollar bill. "Here you go, just take it. I have an ass to kick."

Cynthia almost ran over to the dance floor. She pushed through the other patrons of the club, focusing on only making it over to where the DJ was.

"Cyndi, Cyndi, Cyndi!" Liana said rhythmically. "You didn't walk out, did you?"

"I'm right here!" the woman screamed.

"Oh." Liana could see a fuming Cynthia coming closer. She pulled a piece of red hair behind her ear. "Hey there, girly. Lights on the floor, please!"

Everyone in the club seemed to cease doing whatever activity they were engaged in. A bright white light shone conveniently on the heart of the dance floor where Cynthia was. She stopped in her tracks, dumbfounded. She could feel countless pairs of eyes gaze at her with curiosity.

"Cyndi, your friend here has a song dedicated to you," the female DJ said. "He says you and he just became friends recently and this is your first outing out together. But he says he hopes you'll like this song."

"Play the friggin music already!" one of the inebriated clubbers demanded. "I demand flashing lights and I want my eardrums to explode!"

"Hold up, buddy! The music's coming up now!"

The holoform Cynthia knew and loved so dearly stepped out from the throng of people. She shot him a deathly glare. All he could do was smile at her. He extended his hand out to her.

"What have you done?" she hissed dangerously.

"Dance vith me," Random said innocently. "I just vanted to have a special song played for my new friend."

"_If you don't know me by now you will never, never, never know me. All the things that we been through, you should understand me like I understand you. Now baby, I know the difference between right and wrong…_"

A couple of stifled giggles came from the crowd. Some other people said some 'ooh's' and 'awes' upon hearing the song. The couples started to dance together, waltzing along slowly.

Cynthia could feel her cheeks blush like never before. She felt a strange hybridization of anger and embarrassment roiling in her body. In her eyes, this had to have been the most humiliating stunt he ever pulled on her.

"Dance with the man already!" Liana encouraged.

"Absolutely not," Cynthia said steadfastly. "I am leaving this Hell hole now!"

"'_Cause we only act like little children when we argue and fuss…_"

Cynthia's right eye twitched and her fists were clenching dangerously. More than anything else, she wanted to pummel Blitzwing for setting this up.

"Jou can't take a joke obviously," Hothead jeered.

"A joke?" Cyndi spat. "What the Hell? Was this necessary to single me out like this? I think the only reason why you accepted my offer was so you could continue to torture me like this! I'm just one great big joke, aren't I? I am fed up with this stupidity of yours! I am going home! I don't ever want to see you again! I do not appreciate these corny dance set-ups!"

"Take a chill pill, lady!" one of the patrons said. "Just shut up and enjoy the music!"

"Stay the Hell out of my conversation, jackass! This great big jerk is my business and no one else's!"

"He said it was a joke," a female clubber said. "Relax. You're ruining everyone else's evening by overreacting."

"She's got a point," Liana shrugged. "Come on, Cyndi. Enjoy the evening out here. Make love not war." She paused. "And no, I don't mean to sound like a perv."

"_We've got all our own funny moods. Woman, I know you've got yours too…_"

"I can't win with you at all, so I give up," Cynthia said hopelessly. "I should've stopped and thought about being nice to you. I'm at your mercy yet again. Take my hand and dance."

"According to my studies, jou're eizher flattered and severely embarrassed or pretending jou don't like it," said Icy. "Perhaps it's both. After zis, zhere vill be no more jokes… Can jou dance?"

"If I had spiky cleats on and if you were fully organic like me, I'd step all over your feet until they were a bloody mess and say I'm a horrible dancer. But you're lucky I'm an alright dancer."

"Good." He placed his hand in hers. "Zhen jou von't make a fool of jourself by dancing vith me."


	13. Encroached

**Hey peeps :) Thanks for the love as always. I'll reward your patience with a new chapter (SPOILER ALERT: a certain confession will be coming soon...). As always, please enjoy and let me know what you think of the story. **

**Another note to **blah blah**: Thank you very much :) I endeavor to make my stories as best as they can be. There's no need for apologies either, I just appreciate the honesty and opinions of all my reviewers. **

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Liana the DJ... Gelly-to-the-6-to-the-1-to-the-9 does.**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 13 Encroached

(apartment – 8:00pm)

Amanda twiddled her thumbs anxiously. Her cell phone remained immobile in her lap. Any moment, she was waiting for it to vibrate, signaling to her that her text messages had been replied to. She tapped her feet on the floor impatiently, her patience ebbing steadily.

"Why…won't…you…text…me…back?" she said with increasing volume after each word. "Dammit, Cynthia, how hard is it?"

"That dude was weird," Darien commented. "He had an accent or something. He sounded Russian or whatever."

"He was a total douche!"

"You're just jealous because you thought he was hot and he asked for Cyndi and not you. God, you're shallow."

"You're right I'm jealous! And I want to know what Cyndi's doing with him! She said he was a college buddy of hers! I'm eighteen and legal! He looked to be about twenty something… I got him in the crosshairs! I'm definitely considering him as dateable material." She sighed. "He was so handsome!"

"Like I said, you're shallow. You only liked him because he was handsome. And earlier, you said he was a douche! Make up your mind! Do you want him or not?"

"I DO!"

Darien nearly recoiled at the pitch of her declaration. He scratched an ear.

"Okay, sheesh," he said. "If I was a girl, I wouldn't jump right in. I'm a little wary of people with accents. They freak me out a little to be honest. I may be a little crazy but I could've sworn the dude talked in three voices."

"Yeah, he did," the blonde admitted. "But he's still gorgeous. I envy Cyndi because she has classes with him! Why can't she hook me up with him? I'm single!"

"Did you ever think that maybe he already has a girlfriend? You don't want to be the other woman do you?"

"It depends. If he's good looking enough, I'll definitely consider it."

"Shame on your face."

"She's not answering my texts. I asked her what she's doing and she hasn't replied."

"Don't worry, she didn't get kidnapped. I don't think that'll happen again because I'm sure those 'Cons want to lay low and not abduct any more people."

Amanda's heart nearly stopped in her chest. She rose up suddenly and swiftly from her seating, sending her phone reeling off her lap. It dropped onto the carpeted floor with a dull thump. The saliva seemed to dry up in her mouth and she could hardly even speak. Her pupils dilated and she took a few gasping breaths. Her hands went over her mouth.

Darien looked at his sister inquisitively. He cocked his head to the side.

"Mandy..?" he said softly. "What's going on? Did I say something?"

"Darien," she picked up hesitantly, "the man spoke in three different voices. And if you ask me, they sounded really similar to someone else who speaks in three voices. He also had these really bright red eyes too."

"Wait, hold up." Darien paused to interpret what exactly she was saying and where she was going. "Do we know this guy somehow?"

"I think…" Her face contorted to an expression of terror. "Please tell me I'm very wrong."

"He said he wanted to see Cyndi. He knows her!"

"HOLY GOD, I'M IN LOVE WITH BLITZWING!"

Mandy began to weep, crying over her rotten luck and the shame she felt at being deceived so royally. She buried her face into her hands and wished to die on the very spot.

"He's got Cyndi!" Darien began to panic. "He has her again! Mandy, we have to save her!"

"I am such an idiot!" the girl moaned. "I was tricked! He turned into a man and I flirted with him! Why is there a catch to all good things in the universe? Why can't I have a handsome boyfriend?"

"Will you shut up and stop whining over not having a boyfriend? He's got Cyndi! We must get her away from him before he kidnaps or kills her!"

"I will have my revenge! He made a fool of me and tricked us all! I will make him pay for this outrage!" She grabbed Darien by the front of his shirt. "We will get a bus and we will call her nonstop until we find her!"

(The Steel Star)

"You're quite light on your feet," Cynthia noted. "I wasn't expecting this at all. Do Decepticons do ballet?"

"Cynzhia, jou are looking at ze most marvelous Cybetronian dancer ze universe has ever known!" Random boasted proudly. "I vish my fellow Decepticons vould appreciate my talent zhough. I offer zem dancing lessons all ze time but I end up getting punched in ze faceplate."

"Poor little you. You had it coming though, didn't you?"

"I alvays punched zem right back!" said Hothead. "I'm not gonna let someone punch me and get avay vith it!"

Liana eyed the couple slyly. She couldn't hear their conversation and neither did she really care for that matter. With a mischievous smile on her face, she scrolled through her music library on her iPod. Giggling, she selected a song and waited for the current song to die down.

"Hey, how long do we plan on dancing?" Cyndi asked. "I ought to get home sometime soon. I don't want to leave my brother and sister alone for too long."

"It's not too late," said Icy. "Vhy don't jou enjoy jour time avay from zem?"

"They're kids. They're my responsibility."

"I didn't know jou vere a mozher. Vhere is jour mate?"

"Ha, ha… I didn't give birth to them. They moved over to Detroit with me."

"Oh, so I take it jou're not a native of zis city?"

Cynthia didn't want to reveal too much about her background to him. She was still on guard with Blitzwing. In reality, she feared that giving too much information would lead to some insidious downfall of hers.

"No, I'm not from here," she said carefully.

"May I ask vhere jou are from?" he wondered. "I'm just merely curious."

"The east."

"Ze east?" He smirked. "Jou need to be more specific zhan zat."

"Stop acting like a sparkling," Hothead ordered impatiently. "If I haven't killed jou yet, zhen zhere's a good chance I von't do it anytime soon."

He meant to say it in an assuring manner but it didn't really soothe Cynthia into a sense of security too much. Instead, to her, it made her feel as if she was alright for an undisclosed amount of time. In other words, he might kill her in the unknown future.

"_I know that we are young and I know that you may love me, but I just can't be with you like this anymore, Alejandro!_"

Cynthia felt completely humiliated once more. The shame she felt from the song dedication returned. She had to look away from her partner in a vain attempt to hide the blushing.

"Jou blush a lot, jou know zat?" said Hothead. "Jou're not shy too vhich is veird."

"Ugh, you had to notice..?" she groaned.

"It's just a stupid song. Vhy do jou blush all ze time?"

The good natured DJ could only smile as she studied them. She turned up the music ever so slightly. Despite Cynthia's overwhelming sense of embarrassment, she couldn't help to laugh a little and prod at it. Liana was almost certainly convinced she felt a little something for the man she was dancing with. She figured she might as add a catalyst to whatever chemistry was bubbling beneath the brunette's surface.

"_She's got both hands in her pockets and she won't look at you, won't look at you. She hides true love en su bolsillo._"

"Are jou alright?" Random stopped dancing.

"I'm gonna go sit down," Cynthia said, still refusing to look at him. "I feel very hot. I need more slivovitz."

"Allow to me at least be a gentlebot and show jou to our table," Icy offered.

"No, I'm fine. I have two legs and I can walk, right?"

"Sorry, but I beg to differ."

Calmly, he held her hand and escorted her to their table. Cynthia whimpered silently, wanting to go home more than anything else. She just wanted to crawl into her bed, pull the covers over her head and pretend the past month didn't even exist. Under those covers, there weren't going to be anymore degrading scenarios she had to endure to the best of her abilities. All she wanted was silence and solitude. And more than anything else, she wanted Blitzwing to let go of her hand.

"What is wrong with you, Cynthia?" she interrogated herself fiercely. "Why are you acting like a fool? Is he that daft? Am I really that sheepish and… flighty?"

A few moments later, they were in their little corner of the club. He let go of her hand when she was inches away from her seat. Cynthia sat down roughly, hurting her tailbone in the process. Blitzwing sat in his chair across from her. She buried her face into her hands.

"Get a grip on yourself, girl! Why are you acting like this? Every song you've been hearing lately has been some stupid love song and you end up blushing up a storm… Am I actually starting to have feelings for that fool?"

She peaked through her hands to see what her company was doing. Cyndi jumped in her seat a little to see he was staring directly at her with a semi-concerned look on his face.

"Are jou alright?" said Hothead. "Don't tell me jou have to go to a hospital."

Then her phone vibrated in her pocket. Cynthia sighed in relief. Hastily, she pulled it out, not bothering to look at the caller ID at all.

"Hello?" she cleared her throat.

"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?" Amanda screamed.

"Uh, why do you need to know? I think my ear's bleeding now."

"GET AWAY FROM THAT DUDE RIGHT NOW! IT'S BLITZWING IN DISGUISE!"

Cynthia's eyes grew. She almost dropped her phone, disbelieving that Mandy actually discovered the truth. With effort, she worked up a lie to her mouth to dissuade her sister from making such a conclusion.

"No, that's not true," she stuttered. "You're crazy."

"YOU KNOW IT'S HIM!" Amanda raved. "STOP LYING TO ME, CYNTHIA! I'M SICK OF THIS SHIT! DO YOU WANT HIM TO KILL YOU?"

"I'm perfectly fine, you need to hang up and calm down. I will be home shortly."

"Mandy, give the phone to me!" Darien urged from the background. A few seconds of silence went by before the boy got on the line with his eldest sister. "Cyndi, where are you?"

"Darien, I have it under control, trust me. I will be home later, I promise. Having you and Amanda come onto the scene will only make matters worse."

"Cyndi, do you realize who you're with?"

"Yes, Darien, I do. I am safe, okay?" Her fingers were trembling from the plethora of emotions swelling in her. "Stay home."

"Where are you? Is he holding you somewhere?"

"I'M IN A FREAKING CLUB, DARIEN! THE STEEL STAR! COME AND YOU WILL SEE THAT EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT!"

Without saying another word, Cynthia hung up. She could feel tears come to her eyes. The young woman couldn't believe how a few chance encounters metamorphosed into the situation that she was in. To her, she felt as if her very world was coming undone.

"Zhey know who I am, don't zhey?" he asked.

"Yes, they do," she confirmed. "I have to be honest with you on something, Blitzwing."

"Did jou tell zhem vhat happened vhen jou vere gone?" Hothead pressed.

"Yes… I had to tell them truth. The police found your footprint in the snow where my car was. And how could I explain to them how my car vanished? I only told them we made a deal to escape. I didn't tell my siblings anything else about our first meetings though. They worked with me to create a lie for the police. I'm sorry but I had no choice."

"What do we have here?" said a new voice.

The holoform's eyes narrowed at the company. Cynthia dared to turn around to face the source of the masculine and rugged voice.

Behind her stood a man who was roughly five feet and eleven inches tall. He appeared to be in his mid-twenties, about the same age Blitzwing looked in his holoform. His skin was not too fair or dark and was a level below sun-kissed. The mysterious man wore a long black and green trench coat that was complete with coattails. The pants he wore were black. His boots were Gothic-looking and they were studded with small spikes on the tips of the boots. On his shoulders, there was a strip of material that was a part of the trench coat that was studded with spikes. Like Blitzwing's disguise, he had ruby eyes and beneath those eyes, he had black tattoo-like markings.

"Lockdown," Hothead spat, "vhat are jou doing here?"

"Chilling," the bounty hunter said simply. "I'm hanging around Detroit just for the heck of it." He looked at Cynthia. "Who's your femme friend?"

"None of jour business, slag off."

"Ooh, touchy. I see I crashed your date."

"Who is this guy?" Cyndi asked Blitzwing.

"I'm a friend of Blitzwing's, little lady." He bowed slightly to her. "The name's Lockdown. I'm only your friendly neighborhood bounty hunter."

"You're a robot just like him? You're in disguise?"

"Don't you just love holoforms? They're so great!"

"Get lost," Blitzwing ordered. "Zis is my table!"

"I promise I won't tell the others you have a new pet, Blitzwing. Granted of course Megatron won't specifically ask me about it and offer me some credits…" He chuckled grimly. "I've been hanging around in this club out of sheer boredom and I've been watching you two since that DJ called Cyndi down to the floor…"

"Oh, this is the cherry on the shit sundae…" Cyndi bemoaned.

"I'm curious though: how did you manage to trick an organic into coming here with you? Or are Humans just that stupid?"

"It's none of jour business and I'm not gonna tell you again," the belligerent personality somehow sounded angrier. "Get avay from her or I vill personally rip jour faceplate off."

"Little lady, do you know what you've gotten yourself into? Did you know your date is a deranged, three-faced terror sent from the Pit?" He placed a hand on Cyndi's head. He ran his fingers through her short brown hair. "I can almost taste how scared you are."

Blitzwing rose out of his seat. Lockdown looked over to him.

"I vill give jou zhree seconds," he warned. "Get jour servo off her. Get jour own organic."

Seeing he had plucked an iron nerve as efficiently as he calculated, Lockdown drew his hand away. All he sought to do was to irritate the disguised triple changer and as far as he could tell, it worked to perfection. Besides, he discovered already he liked to frighten the life out of Human females. Lockdown relished the fact he had intimidated both Cybetronians and organics.

"I vill happily remove myself from zis place," Icy said smugly. "Jou must be really quite pazhetic if jou find it amusing to frighten Humans in jour pastime, jou pitiful bottom feeder."

"Says the bot who hired me to capture Optimus."

"Yes, zat vent vell, didn't it?"

He pushed past the bounty hunter, making his way to the side of the table where Cynthia was. The woman could only sit dumbfounded in her seat, disbelieving the turn of events that kept on unraveling before her. Her siblings knew she was with Blitzwing and so did this Lockdown fellow. Things went from bad to terrible to horrific in no time at all.

The familiar holoform grasped her hand once more. Cyndi grabbed her purse with her available hand and followed him as he slowly began to walk away. She felt no embarrassment this time, only relief.

"Let me know how things turn out!" Lockdown waved. "Give me a holler when you're in my neck of the woods!"

(…)

"Ze only zhing jou can do vith a bot like him is to ignore and valk avay, especially vhen jou're a femme," Hothead explained. "Besides, he vas really annoying me."

"Thanks for getting me out of there," Cynthia said. "Is he really going to tell Megatron?"

"I doubt it," said Icy. "He could care less actually. He has ozher zhings to vorry about. Are jou alright?"

"I'm a little cold. But I'd rather be out here in the cold than inside. The atmosphere was getting to be a bit too much."

They were standing out at the front of the club beneath a streetlight. The temperature was in the teens but Cynthia couldn't give a fig otherwise. It was also quite dark to boot and that dimness contributed to prime mugging conditions yet again, she was confident that as long as she had someone else next to her, it wouldn't happen.

"Be prepared for my siblings' onslaught," she forewarned him. "My sister will especially bite at you."

"I've dealt vith vorse," Hothead folded his arms across his chest. "I'm not afraid of puny organic children."

An awkward silence conveniently swept over them. Cyndi kicked at a hardened piece of gum that was stubbornly ingrained into the sidewalk. She cleared her throat.

"Is it just me or was he suddenly protective when Lockdown showed up?" she asked herself inwardly. "Maybe he was just shocked when he saw a fellow robot happened upon him with me… I know I'd act defensive too if I was in his situation. He grabbed my hand and led me out…" She found herself grinning ever so slightly. "The scary thing is, I think I liked it." Then she frowned. "No, this isn't right… This is impossible. He annoys me and drives me up a wall but I like him whether I want to admit it or not. When he isn't making fun of me, he seems courteous enough to me. I might be crazy to think this too but it also looks like he's concerned about me to a certain level… Don't say anything, Cyndi. You'll only get burned and he'll never let you hear the end of it."

"Hey, Blushy," Random poked her arm, "vhat's on jour mind?"

"'Blushy'?" she repeated.

"Zat's my nickname for jou!"

"How nice… I'm just hanging out, that's all."

"Vhat's jour favorite color?"

"Yellow… Dare I ask why?"

"How about jour favorite flower?"

"Lilies."

"Okay! Zhanks, Cyndi!"

Cynthia merely shrugged it off since she was so used to being confused by his mannerisms.

"Zat vas completely unnecessary," said Icy. "Pretend zat jou didn't even hear zhose questions."

"Um, okay," she said nervously.

"I vould kill jou if I could!" Icy whispered harshly to Random. "Zis is not ze time or place to ask her such ridiculous questions!"

"I zhink Cynzhia has feelings for us!" Random told his helm-mates. "She blushes a lot… Don't Humans do zat vhen zhey're near people zhey have feelings for?"

"Jou've gone too far!" Hothead thundered. "Zat is preposterous! Vhy vould Cynzhia have feelings for us? Zat makes no sense! I zhink she hates us and fears us more zhan anyzhing else. Of course, I have no problem vith zat…"

"Once again, jou have proven jourself to be a total loon," Icy said. "But vhat jou said is true…" Blitzwing's holoform wore a vexed look. "Humans blush vhen zhey're embarrassed by certain zhings. But zat femme alvays blushes!"

"She looked like she vas ready to go offline on ze dance floor after some stupid song played."

"I'm certain of it!" Random asserted. "Cynzhia is hiding somezhing… I vill pry her open and see vhat is going on in zat head of hers."

"Don't jou dare..!"

"Jou vill not make a fool out of us!" Icy swore.

"Oh, Cynzhia," Random cooed.

"Yes?" She was caught off guard by the creepiness in his voice.

"Do jou zhink my holoform is quite handsome?"

Cynthia gave him an odd stare. She actually even wondered if she was hallucinating for a moment. All she could do was just stare back at Blitzwing, pretending he was speaking another language.

"Vell?"

"I don't know…" Truly, she didn't know how to react or what to say.

"Jou don't know?" He moved closer to her. More than anything else, he wanted to figure out if she had hidden feelings for him. "Don't be shy, Cynzhia." He placed a hand on her shoulder. The holoform's hand then traced the base of her neck. "Ve're friends, aren't ve?"

Cyndi felt as if a million needles were pricking her at once. She was massively startled by his advances but at the same time, it tantalized her and she had a hard time trying to pull away from him. On her forehead, she could've sworn a droplet of sweat pushed through a pore. Fiercely, her teeth clenched within her gums and her muscles felt unusually warm.

"This isn't real!" she yelped mentally. "He's trying to trick me somehow! I can't show weakness. What is he up to?"

"Alright, zat is enough!" Hothead raged.

His hand drew back from her neck quickly. Cyndi faced him, befuddled as to what was going on inside the chaotic 'Con's cranium.

"Are you okay?" she questioned cautiously.

About fifty feet away, a bus pulled over. The headlights shone on them and Cyndi had to squint since the brightness bothered her. The bus' brakes screeched loudly as it stopped fully. The door on the side of the large vehicle opened up. As soon as the door opened, Cyndi could hear a girl sounding very irate and equally bossy.

"Get the Hell off the bus now! There's no time to waste!"

"I vill leave jou to explain everyzhing to jour siblings," Icy told Cyndi as her attention drifted back to him. "Jou have had enough for ze evening and my continued presence vill only make zhings miserable. Farevell."

"Cynthia!"

She looked away from Blitzwing as Amanda leapt off the bus with Darien close behind. Faintly, she could hear some kind of electrical fizzle behind her. Once more, she faced the holoform, only to find an empty space where he once stood.

"Cyndi!"

The bus pulled away and drove further down the road where the eldest sibling stood. Darien glanced to the route the bus was taking, seeing his "endangered" sister standing harmlessly on the sidewalk.

"Mandy, she's there!"

The two saviors raced down the sidewalk where their sister stood. Cyndi held her ground and waited for them to reach her. Although they were fifty feet from each other, the boy and girl made it to her side before she could even count to five.

"Where is he?" Amanda demanded, absolutely furious.

"He just disappeared," Cyndi said. "As soon as you pulled up in the bus, he literally vanished. He was standing right next to me."

"SHIT!"

"What were you planning on doing to him?"

"Destroying him! I don't care if he's as big as a house, he's going down and he's going down hard!"

"What do you mean 'disappeared'?" Darien asked.

"He wore a holoform: it's a disguise where he can look like a person and walk amongst us," Cyndi explained. "And you will not destroy him, Mandy. I have this under my control as I've asserted over the phone!" She raised her voice. "I told you two to stay at the apartment, did I not?"

"I have every right to be concerned for your welfare!" Amanda shrieked. "Do you have any idea what you're dealing with? Are you mental? I am really, really getting suspicious with you, Cyndi… You're hiding stuff from us and I want in on it now!"

"I have to agree with Mandy, Big Sis," Darien sided with the blonde. "Something's awfully fishy with you and Blitzwing. Why can't you just tell us what's going on?"

"If you don't tell us, I swear to God I will call the police and the Autobots and tell them you've been lying to everyone." Amanda huffed in annoyance. Some tears breached her eyelids. "I don't understand why you're lying. You can trust me! I'm your best friend! Cynthia, I love you. If anything ever happened to you because you refused to be straight with me, I would feel so guilty and I would believe I failed as a sister." She grabbed her elder sister's hands. "Do you see how much danger you're in? Can you see it?"

"Trust me when I say this," Cynthia told her siblings, "but it's alright. You will think I'm lying but I'll say this… I don't think I'm in danger. He hasn't killed me."

"How?" Darien insinuated. "How? I don't get it! His kind is evil!"

"I don't know either. But what I do know is that I think he has somewhat of a liking for me. He saved me and in the club he told this guy off who was bothering me."

Amanda and Darien could only gawk at her words. Cynthia looked back at them, her face stony and true.

"Cyndi…" Mandy said slowly. "Is he in love with you?"

"No!" she said quickly. "No, he isn't!"

"Do you love him?" Darien added.

"No! How could you say that?"

"Well, you're hanging out with him! You lied to us about him! He's not your college buddy!"

"Look, I personally believe he's one of the more decent Decepticons. I…" She swallowed hard. "I met him at the lights festival. Then I saw him again at the mall and once more downtown. I drove out a few nights ago because I wanted to talk to him. He saw my car in the ditch and picked me up because he pitied me. Blitzwing hid me from his friends. I gave him a second chance and I offered my hand in friendship to him because I started to see him in a different light. I thought he was another 'Con but I believe he's a lesser evil amongst the others. We agreed to be friends and on this night, we were just going to hang out together…" She sighed. "That's the truth right there. Ludicrous, right?"

They could only stare at her in disbelief once again. She was terribly discomforted by the uneasy silence but she knew it was inevitable. Cynthia looked into their eyes, signaling to them that there were no lies this time. This time, she had come clean and told them everything.

"So that explains why you were hysterical and you didn't want to go back into the woods after you dropped your purse," Darien realized. "He freaked you out."

"That explains a lot in a nutshell," Mandy blinked. "Now, everything makes sense." There was a tiny smirk on her face. "You're insane like Blitzwing. He's your buddy?"

"I don't even know to be honest," said Cynthia. "He makes fun of me and humiliates me constantly. But he's also polite. It's really weird. I don't really know how he sees me. He does say I'm brave when I have to be and he admires me for that."

"Girl, you are Hercules with boobs! I'd be having a total meltdown if I was exposed to Blitzwing as long as you have been! I couldn't survive it!"

Cynthia could only laugh.

"If that's the case, then Hercules must have the vocal cords of an opera singer too considering how much I screamed in his presence too," she said. "I'll admit that there were times when I was certain I was going to die. Yet here I am. I think I'm only alive because he finds me amusing."

"Let's just head home," Darien shuddered as the cold at last started to get to him. "I think I need to think over all this stuff you just told us, Cyndi. Man, I'm gonna have a hard time wrapping my head around this."

"So, he won't bother us?" Amanda asked Cyndi.

"No," Cyndi assured them, "he's more interested in torturing me anyway."


	14. The Spark and the Heart

**Hey there everyone. Thanks for the love as always! :) Okay, don't be misled by the title of the chapter: you still have to be a little patient but I promise you won't have to wait much longer. Feel free to pelt me with apple cores. Until then, enjoy the update!**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 14 The Spark and the Heart

(January 11th: Detroit High School – 8:30am)

"Good morning class."

No one relayed the greeting to the teacher. All the students were either sleeping or clearly disinterested with being in school to commence with the second half of the second year. Not even the class nerds seemed to be enthused by returning to the academic establishment to further expand their already extensive knowledge. Everyone just wanted to be in their nice warm beds, instead of sitting upright in an uncomfortable metal chair.

Darien George Preston happened to be one of the students who was so disinterested, he was on the verge of abruptly plunging into a deep and restorative REM sleep. His elbows were propped up on his desk with his head resting in his hands. His pale green eyes looked sullied and they were slightly bloodshot. More than anything else, he wanted to be lying in bed drinking a hot cup of apple cider. Heading back to school was the last thing he wanted to stress over considering the episode he had with his eldest sister.

"Eh, bro," Darien's best friend, Teddy, whispered to him. He sat directly adjacent to the boy. "You alright?"

"Dude, I don't want to be here," Darien said back at him lowly. "I'm so beat…"

"Your sister's okay? I know you were freaking out earlier about her."

"Yes, Cyndi's okay. It wasn't on the news and I'm glad for that. It was handled between us and the police. Everything's okay. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier about everything but I was focused on her."

"No, it's okay man."

"Man, I know I'm not ready for the other half of the year," another of Darien's friends, a skinny boy with red hair and brown eyes named Paul, added, "this is gonna blow."

"Hey, where's Benji?" Teddy asked his comrade.

"He probably skipped… I should've done that today. He's got the right idea." Paul laughed shortly. "Maybe he got abducted by 'Cons."

"Man, what would they want Benji for? That fool's got nothing special 'bout him."

Darien preferred to ignore Teddy's comment about the Decepticons. He hadn't told any of his friends about how Cynthia disappeared or where she had been for the time she had vanished. The boy had respected his eldest sister's wishes to keep everything under wraps. Not only that, he did carefully abide by her warning that Blitzwing might come and kill him and Mandy if he should reveal anything.

He tuned out Teddy and Paul's conversation, deciding he was too tired to join them. Sighing, he blinked and urged himself to try to get interested in the start of biology class. Darien just hoped he wouldn't end up having to dissect a fetal pig this early in the morning. The smell of formaldehyde never sat well him yet the sight of spiraling intestines and an inactive heart didn't bother him on the other hand.

His eyes couldn't remain focused on the teacher and they wandered. When they wandered, he caught sight of a girl sitting a few seats over from where was. He squinted, trying to identify her. Immediately, he could see she was a new classmate.

Her arms were folded across her chest and her hands were hidden within the pockets of a big bulky orange hoodie. She wore a pair of black jeans and on her feet she wore orange and black tennis shoes. Her hair was a shade of blonde that was nearly like Amanda's but it was slightly darker. The hair hung down to her shoulder blades and it looked a little greasy. The girl's eyes were shaded blue and they contrasted against her tan skin (Darien thought it looked a little out of place considering it was winter and it seemed like she was at the beach a day earlier). Her facial expression was stern and somewhat undeterminable of any emotions.

Darien cocked an eyebrow, intrigued by her. Right away, he had assumed she transferred to his school over winter break and this was her first day at this new institution.

Suddenly, she looked over at him. Darien nearly jumped in his seat and quickly averted his gaze. The girl gave him an annoyed scowl and then refocused on the teacher.

"Oh great," he thought to himself, "another mean girl."

(Detroit University – 9:00am)

It was the first day of her classes so she knew nothing significant was going to happen. Professors were going to give overviews of what the courses were going to entail and they might possibly start teaching their pupils the basics, giving them their first batch of notes of the semester. In other words, today couldn't be taken too seriously. That was alright for Cynthia. Besides, she had managed to breeze over the first few chapters of her course textbooks and she believed she was more than prepared for the upcoming weeks.

She doodled in her earth science notebook, drawing nothing in particular. Cyndi drew a plain, bland, ordinary circle. Sighing, she tapped her pen against the blank paper and she let her mind drift.

Her thoughts immediately turned to the events that had transpired while she had been away from college for a month. When the most previous semester had ended, she thought her retreat was going to be boring and hardly stimulating. All she had expected were lazy days with her brother and sister which would be spent going down to the mall to kill time, watch movies or sleeping in until early afternoon.

She was sorely mistaken.

Instead of those humdrum things, she ran into a giant metal man in a dark park. From there, things just got worse and worse. Their chance encounters with each other had become more frequent. Eventually, it got to a point where they had to work together. She had hated and feared him on a primal level. Now, Cynthia started to believe she liked him.

Cyndi tried her hardest to not think about her strange acquaintance but it was extraordinarily difficult for her to do so. All she could think about was him. To her, she felt as if her mind was being invaded by his visages and she was slowly succumbing to insanity.

"Drop it," she urged herself. "Just drop it. You don't even know if you will see him again or not. You didn't see him or hear of him yesterday. After he split the club two nights ago, you haven't crossed paths with him. For your own mental health, be thankful and move on." She sighed. "But I can't convince myself otherwise… I am deeply ashamed to admit it but I like him. I might as well be called an enemy of humanity for that. What happened at the Steel Star was completely unnecessary too. Why couldn't I stop blushing? Now he calls me 'Blushy'." She could feel herself blushing for the umpteenth time. "Curse you, Blitzwing!"

It was true: she liked the disturbed Decepticon. When she said she loathed him, her feelings quickly reminded her that wasn't the case. He annoyed, tormented and taunted her but she still liked him. She was convinced he only liked her because she was so easy to poke fun at and he loved seeing her being overly dramatic over the littlest things. However, she was starting to think he saw her more than just a target when she wanted to rush back to the table. She was further vexed by his true views when he threatened Lockdown when he was busy intimidating her. He took her hand and led her outside to distance her from the masquerading bounty hunter.

"Does he like me..?"

One of her fellow classmate's ringtone abruptly went off in the middle of the instructor's monologue. She cocked her brow when she listened to the ringtone.

"_Because your kiss, your kiss, is on my list. Because your kiss, your kiss, I can't resist. Because your kiss is but a miss when I turn out the light…_"

Cynthia groaned in defeat. She slammed her head down on her notebook.

"I can't win."

(Decepticon base – 9:00am)

Starscream observed Blitzwing lying uncharacteristically peaceful in a grove of evergreen trees. Blitzwing was leaning against a mighty spruce with a servo behind his helm. The free servo was rolling a huge snowball back and forth across the exposed earth. His right leg was crossed over his left. Judging from his very posture, it seemed he didn't have a care in the universe.

He raised a metal brow, watching the triple changer. Faintly, he could hear his subordinate hum a song that he didn't know. Already, he could tell which face was in control even though he couldn't see it for himself.

"What is up with you now?" Starscream mumbled.

The seeker walked over to the patch of coniferous trees where his comrade was lounging rather placidly. Blitzwing paid no heed to his approach and rather continued humming the melody. He barely even noticed the shadow Starscream cast on him as he stood directly by his side.

"Blitzwing, what are you doing?" the air commander interrogated, folding his arms across his chest.

"Oh, Starscream!" Random sounded startled. "Don't sneak up on me like zat! I vas just resting here underneazh zis tree and humming to myself."

"I don't really recognize it. Is it an organic tune? I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case…"

"Vhy, yes, it is."

"Naturally. And don't bother to tell me what it is because I could care less about their insignificant culture. You know, you look so strange lying here in the woods like this… What is going on inside that helm of yours?"

"None of jour business, mind jour own," Hothead spat. "Leave me alone! Can I be alone vith me and my zhoughts?"

Starscream looked disgusted. He frowned at Blitzwing. Irritated, he kicked snow into his face and turned around on his heels. Then he walked away back to the entrance of the lair to retreat back into the dank depths of the mine.

Blitzwing wiped the snow off his face and amazingly preferred to ignore Starscream's rudeness. He had other things to worry about right now either way rather than avenging himself. His problem didn't lie with Starscream. Rather, it laid with a femme who had earned the privilege and curse of becoming the organic closest to him.

"Starscream can slag off," the angry persona said. "I can kick his aft later."

"_Jou're gonna lose zat girl!_" Random sang, abandoning humming the Beatles song. "_I'll make a point of taking her avay from jou, zat's vhat I'll do! Ze vay jou treat her, vhat else can I do? If jou don't take her out tonight, she's gonna change her mind! And I vill take her out tonight and I'll treat her kind..!_"

"Enough!" Icy almost screamed. "Zat is completely uncalled for!"

He quickly rose up from the earth. Hothead took over and he angrily uprooted a tree with one tug of his powerful servo. Growling with pure ire in his voice, he snapped the tree in half, splinters of wood spewing everywhere.

"I HATE HER!" he roared.

"I love her!" Random howled with laughter. Blitzwing danced around cheerily, his movements sleight and graceful despite his size. "Jou can't hide vhat's inside!"

"Oh, I don't zhink so!" Icy debated. "Zis is unacceptable! It is improbable! It is blasphemy! It is…" He exhaled heavily. "Perverse."

"I'm gonna go to her home and squish her like ze bug zat she is!" Hothead fumed. "I can't stand it any longer! Vhy have I let her go off alive for so long? She toys vith me and I let her get avay vith it!"

Blitzwing kicked a tree, sending the snow that blanketed it plummeting to the ground. Another kick severed it completely. A boulder that had the great misfortune of being by the victimized tree was the next object to bear the fury of the conflicted 'Con. With one powerful stomp of his stabilizing servo, Blitzwing crunched the rock into atoms.

"Stop acting like a spoiled sparkling!" Icy scolded his firebrand helm-mate. "Ve need to calm down and discuss zis delicate matter vithout attention being brought to ourselves."

"I love Cynzhia," Random babbled sheepishly. "She's cute, brave, funny and oh so helpless at ze same time!"

"No, jou are being deceived… Jou don't love her. She doesn't love us eizher. She is grateful for being saved and for vhat happened at zat club vith Lockdown."

"Jou took her servo both times!" The pumpkin face cackled. "Vhen she started blushing up a storm, jou took her to ze table. Vhen Lockdown bozhered us, jou led her out of ze club!"

"I vas being a gentlebot! Just because I took her hand doesn't mean I have feelings for her."

"I can believe I aczually defended her…" Hothead said aghast, remembering when Lockdown approached their table. "Did I say I vas going to tear his faceplate off?"

"Yes, jou did!" Random confirmed. "I zhink Lockdown vas becoming a little scared too!"

"Oh, fine!"

A cannon barrel came down over his shoulder and he ignited a tree. He watched with mild satisfaction as it burned. Steam hissed off the tree, melting the snow off it and the moisture within the organism itself. As the seconds went by, the flames that licked it grew larger and hungrier. Within a minute or two, it looked like the charred effigy of a wicker man as it disintegrated and crumbled steadily into a pile of smoldering ashes.

"I normally loazhe zhose organic insects but I do like her," Hothead admitted as he looked at the glowing embers. "She's got a mouth on her but I like zat."

"Yes, it just tickles me especially vhen she zhreatens me," said Icy. "Her anger makes her foolish and blind at times but as I said before, I admire her bravery. It is rare amongst her kind."

"So, it's decided," Random folded his servos together. "Ve all love her!"

"Hey, I never said zat!" Hothead reminded.

"But every time ve think about her, our spark feels so varm and fuzzy!"

"It does not!"

"It does to!"

"Does not!"

"Does to!"

"DOES NOT!"

"DOES TO!"

"Shut up or I vill carve jour hideous faces out of my helm!" Icy threatened in such a bloodthirsty tone it almost sounded uncharacteristic. He sighed and collected himself. "I vill not accept zat right now. I vill acknowledge one zhing zhough: ve all like her. I refuse to believe zat ze veird varmth I feel in my spark is affection. Zhere is no room for it because I'm a Decepticon. Ve have no need for such flighty and pitiful feelings."

"I know I don't feel anyzhing for her but I'm starting to believe ze crazy one about somezhing," Hothead added. "I zhink zhat Cynzhia may have vhat organics call a 'crush' on us!" He scoffed. "Vhat a strange femme!"

"I zhink ve should try to figure out if she does," said Random. "I tried to see her reaction outside ze club but her brozher and sister ruined zhings."

"Jou veren't testing her reaction, jou vere trying to seduce her, glitch head! Because of zat, ve'll never get ze chance to know ze truth! She'll run every single time I come by!"

"Ve ought to try to see her again just to see vhat her reaction vill be," Icy suggested. "Ve vill vatch her carefully. Hopefully I know enough about organics vhere I can interpret her body language and vhatnot. She shouldn't be zat hard to read." He smirked triumphantly. "Zis mystery vill be put to rest."

(apartment – 3:30pm)

"So, how was school today, kiddo?" Cyndi ruffled her brother's hair.

"Boring as heck," Darien sighed, throwing his book bag on the floor. "The only interesting thing about today was that there's a new girl in class."

"How nice. Did you flirt with her?"

"Oh, no. I think she's one of those chicks who thinks she's too hot for everyone. I was looking at her earlier and she shot me some kind of death glare."

"You should be used to them considering I give you a lot of them right before you spill the beans."

"She's scary. She's cute but I think she's got issues."

"Well, new girls can be defensive. Did you catch her name?"

"I don't think so. I only had her in my biology class and I saw her a few times in the halls or in the cafeteria."

"Give her some time to warm up to things. If you aren't afraid of her anymore, talk to her. You're a sweet young man."

"Yeah, we'll see… How was college for you?"

"Uneventful. I'm just happy to be home."

"Where's Mandy?"

"She had to go to work at ten. She won't be back until four or five. It's just us until then."

"Did you run into any more stalkers?"

Cyndi rolled her eyes. She sat down on the couch and turned on the TV.

"If you mean by Blitzwing in his holoform, no," she said. "So don't worry about that. I don't know what that loony robot is up to. I prefer to not know."

"I'd want to know everything and then stab him in the back," Darien said. "That's what you ought to do, Cyndi. Get close to him, pretend to be his sweet little gal pal and then plunge the knife into his heart. Make sure you twist it too. Remember, we're people and he's a metal monster. Those 'Cons are gonna kill us all especially if they beat the Autobots."

"You're making me feel really bad about myself."

"No, don't! It's an advantage. He won't expect betrayal from you because you're a single, innocent, cute female." He paused. "You are on our side, right?"

"Of course, Darien! Don't say stuff like that. You know I'm of course allied with my own race."

"If you get close enough to him, could you just imagine all the juicy stuff you'd then tell the Autobots about the 'Cons? We could save ourselves!" He laughed shortly. "Maybe it's a good thing you're 'friends' with this guy."

Cynthia was relieved to hear the phone ring. She got up from her seat on the couch and went over to the receiver where the cordless phone sat. Then she lifted it up and pressed the 'talk' button. Lastly, she brought it up to her ear.

"Hello, Preston residence, Cynthia speaking," she answered.

"Hey, Cyndi-Baby!"

Cyndi wrinkled her nose. She paused for a moment, trying to figure out who this caller was.

"Uh, hello?" she proceeded carefully. "Who is this?"

"Come on, Cynthia," the man said, "take a wild guess."

"Who? Please tell me."

"Your mom gave me your name, baby. It's me. It's Wes."

She almost dropped the phone. Her heart skipped a few beats. Cynthia couldn't say anything into the mouthpiece since she was held captive by the sheer shock she felt. At the moment, she just wished she could instantaneously transmit to her home in Greenvale and have a nice talk with Helen for giving her ex-boyfriend her number.

"Wes..?" She repeated. "Wes Larkson?"

"Yes!" he laughed. "Your eighth grade sweetheart!"

Darien immediately evacuated the living room and retreated to his bedroom. He knew about his sister's history with the dashing former jock. In his guts, he felt like things might get potentially heated up and he had no desire to intercede in their conversation.

"My mom gave you my apartment number?" she rubbed her head.

"Yeah," Wes said. "What's up? You sound pissed."

"Oh, no." It was a great big lie. "I'm just in disbelief now. What a surprise!"

"I saw your mom down at the grocery store and I chatted with her for a bit. She said you and your brother and sister were still over in Detroit. I told her that we've drifted apart too far and I asked if I could have your number so I could talk to her… And here we are now."

"Huh, count on my mother." She made a mental note to remind Helen why she no longer talked to Wes anymore later. "Yes, I'm still over here doing college things. I'll be finishing up in May."

"That's great. Will you be coming back here to Greenvale?"

"I don't know. I've been having thoughts about getting a job at the environmental offices here in Detroit. Lake Erie is right by the city."

"Well, you've got to come back at some point. I know I'd love to see you again, Cyndi. How about I come over to where you are and say 'hi'?"

"Wes." Her voice was stern. "You know how I feel about you."

There was silence over the other end of the line. She heard him sigh ponderously a moment later.

"Cyndi, I'm different," he explained. "I'm twenty three, not fourteen anymore. I'm not that arrogant little punk like I used to be in middle school and high school."

"I know that people may change as the years go by," she said. "I changed since those days too. I'm older now and I'm not the girl I used to be. Besides, our literal week-long romance was a bust anyway."

"You didn't give me enough time!"

"Wes, it was a pathetic schoolyard fling. I thought I loved you one day and then the next, I discovered I just wasn't interested anymore. I know you thought the same too."

"Okay, I'll give you a point for that. We were both kids: immature, naïve and just straight out stupid. I admit I wanted you because I wanted to look cool with a girlfriend."

Those words stung her slightly but they were true. Cynthia only liked Wes because he helped pick up her books when she tripped in the hall. For a month, he was her knight in shining armor. Then he just turned into an ugly and egomaniacal troll. She further found out, as time went on, Wes' friends dared him to pick up her books.

"I let it die, Wes," said Cyndi. "You might as well too. I moved on and you ought to move on too. Don't you have girlfriend or something?"

"No, I'm a trapper," he said. "I have my little cabin a few miles outside of Greenvale and that's it."

"Share your life with someone else. I'm living my life out happily here in Detroit with Amanda and Darien."

"Cyndi, please, I want to make it up to you. Can't we at least just renew things as friends?"

"Wes, please, you're making me feel like a villain. I'm in Detroit, Michigan. You're in Greenvale, New York. I'm not a big fan of long-distance relationships. I don't mean to be rude but I'm not interested."

"Not a girlfriend, just a regular friend!"

"I am aware of that." She tried to subdue her rising frustration.

"There's someone in your life, isn't there? What's his name, Cyndi?"

"No one, Wes. I am single and loving it. Stop making hasty conclusions. I'm not judging you harshly. I just want to focus on what's going on right here, right now. Next time I'll be around Greenvale, I'll talk to you alright?"

"You have a boyfriend! Dammit, I knew it! You just don't want to tell me..!"

"Goodbye, Wes." Without a second to spare, she hung up on him. Rolling her eyes, she held the phone to her chest and pretended as if the conversation between them didn't even transpire. "I'm already having weird feelings fluttering around in me and I don't need you making things more difficult than they already are."

The phone rang a few seconds later. Narrowing her eyes at the phone and growling in annoyance, she pressed the 'talk' button again.

"Wes, I don't love you!" she hissed.

"Ves?" Random said. "Who's zat?" He gasped. "Jou have a boyfriend?"

"No, no, no!" Cyndi didn't think things could get any weirder. "I didn't know it was you!" Then she spoke lowly. "How did you get my number, Blitzwing?"

"It vas so simple," said Icy. "I looked it up by hacking into a system database, input jour address I got from jour driver's license and found it. I managed to convert zhose numbers into a code I could use vith my comm. It's not zat hard."

"Okay, whatever, I'll buy it. Why are you calling?"

"I vas just vondering if jou vanted to join me for anozher evening," Random revealed innocently. "Zhings in ze base are so boring so I plan on going out."

"Uh, I guess that's okay. I can do that. I have to be stealthy about it."

"Zhen be stealzhy about it and don't ruin everyzhing," Hothead barked.

"Alright. What're we doing?"

"Just vear somezhing zat vill keep jour organic form varm."

"Uh, okay... Why?"

"Don't ask questions. I vill see jou later."

He disconnected the call.


	15. Mechanical Romanticism

**THIS..! CHAPTER..! *dies* This was really difficult to write and even now I don't know if I wrote it the way I wanted to. There was much more I wanted to insert into this chapter but I decided against it. It took me long enough to finally get to this particular point in the story. Hopefully you'll all love it. Go nuts guys!**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 15 Mechanical Romanticism

(8:00pm)

Cynthia actually found herself fretting. Nervously, she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but she just couldn't shake off the tense feelings. Concern was written in her eyes and etched into the wrinkles on her forehead. More than anything else, she felt like she was a poor sacrifice being brought forth to a bloody and gore-laden ancient Aztec altar to appease the vengeful hunger of a heathen sun god. Beneath her lips, her teeth were clenched tightly. Her pulse was higher than usual and her fingers trembled slightly.

"Are you okay in there?" Amanda knocked on the bathroom door. "You've been in there for an hour."

"Uh, yeah," Cynthia nearly choked on her own saliva. "I'm okay."

"Where'd you say you were going to again?"

"There's an event tonight at the campus. They're having a…" She wracked her brain trying to think up of a convincing lie. "A first meeting for a club: a GreenPeace one."

"What? You're not a hippie!"

"Look, my environmental science professor is giving out extra credit points for those who attend the meeting. I can always afford to have those points just in case something unfortunate comes around and butchers my grade."

She heard Mandy walk away from the door. Cynthia looked back in her reflection, checking her attire for the evening.

On her feet, she wore a pair of tan hiking boots with the bottoms of her light blue jeans tucked into the clunking shoes. Her torso bore the weight of her bulky yellow ski jacket. Beneath that jacket, she wore a dark blue henley. To keep her short hair close to her head and to conserve her body heat further, she wore a yellow bandana.

"I look like a female lumberjack!" she huffed. "But what do I care? I'm heeding his warning when he says to dress warm…" Her persistent fear churned in her stomach like a heavy metal anvil. "What is on his mind?"

Cynthia looked closer at her reflection, studying her own features. She had her mother's hair and her father's eyes. Her head then turned to the side, observing herself through that angle. She could use a little more blush… On second thought, maybe not.

"I don't look like Venus and neither do I look like The Thing," she decided. "Wonderful!"

She crept out of the bathroom and turned her head to the right, seeing her brother and sister in the living room. Cynthia quietly walked into the kitchen and grabbed her cell phone which sat on the table. Her purse was disregarded since she personally believed she wouldn't need any of the contents within it.

"I'll be back later," she informed them.

"Have fun," Darien said blandly, too engrossed with the TV.

Cyndi opened up the door and walked out of the apartment. The door clicked and she walked away from her home.

"Bullshit, I know she's lying," Mandy plainly stated. "Let's go."

(wooded lot – ten minutes later)

She cupped her hands up to her face and breathed into the bowl she created with them. Vigorously, she rubbed them together. The mittens she wore turned out to be useless after all when it came down to keeping her hands toasty and well protected against the bitter chill. Her eyes turned up to the cloudy sky and she cursed under her breath.

"I came out here to meet you so you wouldn't show up at my door with my siblings skulking behind me," she whispered harshly. "I'm freezing, get here now!"

No sooner than a few seconds after she finished her sentence, she could hear a faint roar. She perked up instantly and stood up from her seat on a log. The roar rumbled proudly through the air and to a certain degree, it almost sounded defiant. Cynthia thought this was quiet odd because although she could hear this disturbance, she couldn't exactly pinpoint where it was resonating from.

Very quickly, she learned where it came from when a jet suddenly appeared from behind a wispy, almost ghostly cloud. The machine dived to the ground where she was. Instinctively, she took a few steps back.

"Show no fear," Cyndi told herself. "There's none of that anymore."

As quickly as he appeared on the scene, Blitzwing dropped to the earth with a loud thud, landing professionally on his stabilizing servos. His knees were bent and his servos were touching the ground. Random greeted her with his infamous, huge, sharp-toothed grin.

"Good evening, Cynzhia," he said in an awkward, sensual tone.

Cyndi could only stare at him in confusion for a moment, not expecting the peculiar tone in the voice that she never heard before in him. She blinked with her mouth slightly agape. He only stared back at her, his ruby optics melting into her bluish gray eyes.

"Hi…" she weakly managed.

"Zat's all I get?" Hothead sounded offended.

"Whatever, I'm just glad you're here. I'm freezing."

"Didn't I tell jou to vear somezhing varm?"

"Yeah but I'm still cold!"

"Zhen whose fault is zat?"

"Just tell me what you have in store. I want to try to endure a few hours with you without fighting with you in one way or another."

"It's nozhing special really," Icy grinned. "It's somezhing much more different zhan a noisy, cloistered club."

"I'm a little relieved that's the case. But I figured I wasn't going to be going to a club considering you told me to wear warm clothes… Is this a surprise?"

"Jou could say zat." His smile widened when he picked up on two heat organic signatures about a hundred feet away from Cynthia. They thought they were invisible to him but they were underestimating his capabilities. "I von't consume too much of jour time eizher. I know jou have responsibilities."

"As long as I come home alive and not a day later than I planned, I'll be fine."

"Just as long as jou don't annoy me too much, jour vish vill be granted," said Hothead.

"Really? What if I act obnoxious, spoiled and demanding like I always am in your presence?"

"Jou like to push it, don't jou?"

"Take me already, you great big lummox."

"As jou vish, my lady," Random retorted.

With her arms folded across her chest and with her patience whittling, Blitzwing entwined his fingers around her. Earlier, she would've been screaming as if the Devil himself had her in his clutches but now she wasn't so bothered by it. However, she still couldn't help to feel her skin crawl when he did touch her in both his true shape and his holoform.

He transformed around her, becoming the jet once more. Cyndi wound up in her usual seat. The seatbelts ensnared her again, securing her into the chair.

"Sit back and relax, Cyndi," Random crooned.

"I'm comfy in this posture right here," she said. "Don't worry about me."

Blitzwing ascended into the sky and headed towards the north, away from the city. Amanda and Darien emerged from their hiding spot, jogging after the triple changer who had whisked away their guardian once more.

"This is getting freakier and freakier," Darien shook his head.

"Darien," Amanda spoke as if she was locked in some kind of reverie. "I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach about something…" She was horrified by what she had concluded since she watched her sister and Blitzwing chat. "He's flirting with Cynthia. Either that girl is amazingly stupid and blind or she's just pretending like this isn't happening."

"That can't be!"

"Jesus Christ, are you daft? Either some really messed up game is going on or it's for real…" She watched as the Decepticon disappeared from her field of view. "The thing is, she lies to us. She's a horrible liar and I could just tell she had something up her sleeve."

"What're we going to do? Cyndi doesn't want us to call the Autobots in. But I don't want to stand around and do nothing."

"I don't know, Darien. Cynthia was always a no-nonsense girl. She knew what was right and what was wrong. Mom and Dad always prided over the fact she was a good, smart kid." She snorted. "Now look at her. She's running off with Blitzwing behind our backs. She told me she's obviously with us because she's Human and thus with the Autobots because they're helping us. But what she's doing is wrong. Blitzwing's a Decepticon and a loony one too. I think there's something else going on with them that hasn't been told to us…"

"Now, don't start getting crazy ideas, Mandy…"

"Crazy circumstances lead to crazy ideas. Why would she lie to us and still continue to see him?" A look of shame, agony and disbelief streaked across her face. "If you ask me, they're in love with each other. She might not admit it to anyone but I think she is. Why else would she risk a lot? Why else would she tell us to not tell the Autobots about him and her?"

"No, I don't believe it! Cyndi would never let that happen…" He hoped deep within that wasn't the case. "It's disgusting! Is she thinking clearly?"

"I give up, Darien. I'm done trying to understand her behavior ever since December. I'm done asking questions if all she's going to do is lie to me. When she's ready to talk, then so be it."

"But what if they're in love?"

"Then they're in love." She spat at the direction where Blitzwing flew off to. "Let them screw off for all I care."

(…)

"Jou seem avfully quiet," Icy observed.

Cynthia was snapped out of her daydreaming. She was staring out the cockpit window, looking at the dark blue sky that spanned across as far as she could tell to the corners of the globe. The girl shifted her arms, the fabric of her ski jacket rubbing together.

"Huh, what?" she said, sounding stupid.

"Jou seem very quiet and calm," he said. "Zis is quite unorthodox for jou, is it not?"

"I'm just thinking, that's all. It's nothing too interesting or important."

"May I ask jou somezhing?"

"Why not? I thought you knew everything about me."

"Funny… Who is zis Ves? Jou screamed it into my comm vhen I got a hold of jou."

"Some guy I used to know."

"Jou said jou didn't love him anymore."

Cynthia sighed, wishing he really wouldn't poke and prod at the matter. She looked out the window again. However, she didn't want to brush him off completely and pretend as if he wasn't talking to her.

"He was my crush," she revealed. "To be honest, I don't even know if I would consider him my ex-boyfriend because our relationship was so pathetic and brief."

"Oh-ho, do ve need to pay him a visit?" Random said with menace in his voice. "I can do zat for jou, Cynzhia. If jou vant him to disappear off ze face off zis planet, I can help jou vith zat."

"Absolutely not, Blitzwing! You will not harass and kill him! Leave him be."

"Alright, alright… I can do zat for jou, sveetspark."

Cynthia placed her hand strategically over her mouth. She bit her tongue hard, trying her best to ignore his comment.

"DO…NOT…BLUSH!" she screamed within. Then she opened up her mouth and spoke to him. "So, uh… W-Where are we off too? You never revealed it to me. We've been flying for about ten minutes or so."

"It's a surprise," he almost whispered. "But I promise jou vill love it."

"Are we close?"

"Close enough."

(…)

She could hardly see anything in the darkness but she knew they had to have reached their destination when she felt him bank. Cyndi gripped the arm rests as he dove towards the ground below. The seatbelts around her tightened a little but she failed to notice this. Her eyes tried to peer through the tinted glass but she could barely see anything now that they were faced away from starlight.

Her face was met with the cold and unforgiving fangs of a January wind when he transformed, exposing her to the outside world. Cynthia was temporarily taken aback by this unpleasant feeling but she fought it off. Her rump on his cold servo didn't make matters any better and a wave of chilliness spread through her.

With chattering teeth and a sudden shake, she stuffed her hands into her pockets. Blitzwing looked down at her and shook his helm.

"Jou refuse to listen to me," Hothead said in an annoyed manner.

"Don't say a word," she warned. "I'll get used to it. I was nice and warm while you were flying and then I got shot out into the cold!" She stood up on her feet. "Where are we exactly anyway?"

"Look around jou," Random encouraged.

Cynthia did as he urged. It didn't take her long to realize Blitzwing was standing on the precipice of a cliff. At the bottom of the cliff, she could hear water roaring and pounding against the rocky base. As her eyes adjusted to the dim conditions, she could see pieces of ice floating around, tossed around by Lake Erie's waves. On the horizon, there was silver, breathtakingly spectacular full moon that hung like a giant celestial pearl. The moonlight cast pallid light on the glossy surface of the vast lake, making it look like some kind of giant mirror. To a certain extent, with the way the moonlight shone on the water, it looked like a giant white, flat, and almost eternal field of snow.

"Woah!" Cynthia's jaw dropped. "This is marvelous!"

"I stumbled upon zis place during my vanderings," Icy told her as he sat down on the ledge, his legs dangling over the side. "I admit it most certainly has its charm and beauty."

"Can we back it up, please? We're right by this cliff and I don't really feel like drowning tonight."

"Do jou trust me?"

"Let's not start with these games, okay?"

"Answer me, Cynzhia."

Questions of ethics invaded her innermost thoughts and sanctuaries. She knew that in the eyes of her own species and of the Autobots, what she was doing could very well be considered treason. Blitzwing was an enemy of Earth and its mechanical guardians. But here she was, standing in the palm of his metal hand as if she owned the world. Although he was a Decepticon, he treated her rather well despite what she previously assumed she'd be subjected to. Again, Cynthia recollected the reasons why he told her he admired about her yet she still had a hard time deciphering the nature of their odd relationship.

When she was away from him, she almost missed him. When she was actually in his presence, she fought with him. At the moment, she wished she was as unfeeling as a rock so she wouldn't have to deal with such bizarre scenarios and thoughts and the sensations that accompanied them. Then there was that odd feeling she got inside her heart and gut when she thought about him…

No. She was a good girl. She didn't deal with maniacal, bloodthirsty, accented triple changers. There were other things she needed to dwell on, like her brother and sister. She was throwing too much caution to the wind by seeing him and trying to establish some sort of friendship with Blitzwing.

"_Answer me, Cynzhia._"

"Blitzwing, it has to end," she replied at last, not even really answering his question. "I can't go on like this. It is psychologically taxing and my conscious is killing me."

"Vat are jou talking about?" Hothead was defensive.

"No more stupidity, alright? I can't lie to my race, my siblings and myself. I'm sorry but I'm a good person. I want good to win over evil."

"Yes, I get ze message," Icy said with his normal optic narrowed dangerously. "Jou, ze poor, innocent, veak organic cannot deal vith ze reality of talking to a Decepticon. Is it really zat hard, Cynzhia? I have spared jou many times and zis is vhat jou say to me?"

"Yes…" She hung her head. She had no desire to anger him. "Can you raise me up to your face? I want to look right into your eyes."

Gruffly, he brought her up to his faceplate. His ruby optics seemed redder somehow as if they altered with his anger. Cyndi knelt down. If she extended her arm all the way out, she'd be touching his face.

"Please, listen to me," she said, trying to make sure there was zero aggression in her voice. "I like you. I really do. It's just that… Well, I'm Human and you're a Decepticon. I don't think I can stress that anymore."

"So, if I vas an Autobot, jou vould have no trouble maintaining a relationship vith me?" he concluded.

Cynthia bit her tongue. She don't know why it suddenly felt like someone thrust a Bowie knife into her spinal column. It hurt to even think of the truth that was ready to be said.

"Yes," she said hoarsely, "please, don't be mad at me. Don't you feel the same way? Don't you feel like you're betraying everything?"

Blitzwing hated to admit that she was right about that. He did feel like he was a traitor at times by sneaking out of the base. But unlike her, it didn't pester him as much. Grudgingly, he did see he liked her. He felt protective of her and he just realized how prominent that was when Lockdown walked up to them at the Steel Star. He was her escort for the evening and he was going to make sure she belonged with him.

Chills made his spark shudder with horror when he briefly wondered what would become of her and him if Megatron ever found out. Undoubtedly, he knew Cynthia would be personally executed by the silver tyrant for this outrage. It was also equally likely Blitzwing would join her in death. She was his favorite organic and he was going to be sure that when Megatron did order the destruction of the Earth, he'd request to keep her as his "pet" just to save her.

He considered fate to be quite cruel to him especially when his insane side concluded he was in love with the organic femme. Hothead and Icy steadfastly dismissed this, refusing to believe it and declared it to be sheer madness. However, the more logical of his personas began to question themselves now as they reluctantly admitted truths they had discovered about her.

"I suppose I do see jour point," he resumed. "Jou feel like jou are going against jour planet. Ze more I zhink about jour reasoning, ze more I can relate jou. I am becoming convinced…"

"So you see?"

"But, Cynzhia," Random said sadly, "I like jou. Aczually, I don't. I lo-…"

"He speaks nozhing but foolishness!" Hothead proclaimed.

Then he suddenly froze up, becoming as still as a statue. There was no breeze blowing and everything seemed as silent as space's vacuum. Cyndi raised a brow and waved her hand in front of his face.

"Hello?" she called. "Is there anyone in that head of yours besides the other two faces?"

"Do jou trust me?" he asked once more.

"Oh, for God's sake..!"

"Too late! If jou don't, zhen I can change zat now!"

Before she could fully understand what was going on, Blitzwing's hand clamped around her like a steel bear trap. Cynthia started to yelp in shock but his finger came across her mouth, muffling her. He slid off the cliff, falling to the hypothermic-inducing waters below.

"HHNNGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" She tried to scream through his finger.

Blitzwing let himself fall a little further until he judged the appropriate length. With his free servo, he gripped the craggy cliff face, abruptly halting his plunge. Luckily, the ledge managed to bear his weight and both the Cybertronian and his organic companion were secure. They dangled a mere forty feet above Erie's frosty froth.

Switching to Random, Blitzwing looked down at his servo that still held Cynthia. She was glaring back at him with furious eyes. Even now, he was still smiling as always.

"Shh," he hushed her. "Ve have company."

(…)

"I'm pretty sure I saw him fly towards here!" Bumblebee pouted. "How could we lose him? He's twice our size!"

"He couldn't have gone too far." Prowl placed a servo on his chin. "I could sense that his energy signal was faint but it was enough for us to follow him."

"It's just weird… We see them every once in awhile but as far as we know, they don't do anything. It's like they're reminding us to not get too comfortable." The young yellow bot glanced nervously over at his friend. "Do you think they have something big planned?"

"I wouldn't doubt it in the least bit, Bumblebee. Decepticons are very crafty, we both know that."

"Back to the point though: where'd Blitzbrain go?"

Prowl looked around the outlook carefully, looking for any clues that hinted to the knowledge that the triple changer had been in the area fairly recently. The snowy woods around them appeared to be untouched since there weren't giant footprints to be found or snapped trees. A small smile graced his faceplate when he found this serene environment didn't appear to be raped by the presence of the 'Con. The ninja bot had always admired the four seasons that had Earth had: he appreciated each and every one of them for their own little distinctions and hallmarks of beauty.

However, it didn't take long for the deceptive calm to prevail. Prowl and Bumblebee had stumbled across Blitzwing's tracks in the snow. Judging by an impression they found by the edge of the cliff, they could tell he was sitting. By the looks of it, the tracks and the impression was fresh. Very fresh.

"He was here!" Bumblebee said with firm conviction. "I knew it! Now, where is he?"

"Bumblebee, can it," Prowl whispered harshly. He drew two throwing stars. His helm nodded to the foot of the cliff. "You stay right here. Just have your stingers ready just in case."

The spirited Autobot's stingers came out. They crackled softly with electricity as a serious look occupied his gray faceplate. He bent himself into a defensive posture, with one stabilizing servo in front of the other. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of his metal innards that the demented Decepticon was in on them.

Prowl edged carefully to the precipice. His feet shuffled along carefully, trying to be as silent as possible. He clenched the stars tightly, just waiting for an evil cackle or an annoyed growl. When he was just inches away from the steep drop off, he looked downwards.

"Huh?" he mumbled.

He was half expecting to see Blitzwing staring up at him as he clung to the rock face. Instead, he was greeted by ice and waves. Prowl gritted his teeth and put his razor-sharp stars away.

"Slag," he cursed.

Assuming all was clear, Bumblebee sheathed his stingers. He walked over to Prowl's side and looked down the cliff, seeing the same thing that greeted Prowl's optics. Like his compatriot, he felt defeated upon seeing that Blitzwing had eluded them.

"Looks like he flew the coop right before we got here," he said.

"Typical," Prowl noted bitterly. "He's smart. Well, there's no point wasting our time standing here, looking at the lake. Let's head back to base and tell Optimus about what happened."

"We'll get him next time when he least expects it!" Defiantly, Bumblebee braced his speech synthesizer and raised the volume of his voice. "You just barely got away, Blitzbrain! Next time, you won't be so lucky!"

Prowl and Bumblebee transformed into their vehicle modes. Their tires skidded and shrieked as they tore up the snow beneath them. They then began their journey back to the Autobot base in the city.

(…)

Cyndi could faintly hear the two Autobots retreat when she heard their tires. She heaved heavily in relief, believing she and Blitzwing were about to be busted. Fate had been kind to them when at the last minute, the triple changer found a hollow in the cliff face. It was cramped but it was sufficient enough to house him and her. He climbed up to the tiny cave and took shelter in it right before the Autobots started talking to each other. He sat cross legged in it with Cynthia sitting on his knee.

"Zheir energy signals are fading," Icy announced.

"So, coast is clear?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Ooh, zat vas close!" Random sounded ecstatic. "I love a good game of hide and seek!"

"Huh, fools," Hothead said arrogantly. "Looks like I outsmarted zem! Zhey could only see ze cave if zhey vere in ze vater." His gaze focused on the organic. "Now, vhere vere ve?"

"To avoid any more conflicts, we should just stop meeting like this," Cynthia remorsefully resumed. "I'm going to be blunt about it. You don't want to get caught by your leader. I don't want my brother and sister to think I'm a traitor. It's for the best of us."

"But," Random said sorrowfully, "who am I going to pick on now?"

"That Starscream guy, I don't know." She paused. "Don't start crying, alright? You're going to make me feel really bad then."

"As jou vish," Icy said gently. "I understand."

She leapt off his knee as he crept over to the mouth of the cave. Cynthia followed behind him. Blitzwing threw his legs over the side and activated the thrusters in his boot-like feet so he could hover in the air. He held his servo out to her, telling her it was safe to climb on. Obligingly, she stepped up and then sat down in it.

Slowly, he flew hovered back up to the top of the cliff. His rockets deactivated when he was just a dozen feet off the ground. Once more, he turned his optics back to Cynthia.

"Perhaps jou are right," he conceded. "It is risky. I don't vant to die and jou don't as vell. It vould be so awkvard for me to explain to Megatron how it came about if he ever found us togezher…"

"Thank you for understanding," she sounded relieved. "I really do like you, Blitzwing. You annoy me to no end at times but I've seen past that. You're so…" She tried to find the word to try to sum up all three of his personalities as a whole. "Complex."

"And jou're quite ze interesting little femme, aren't jou?" Hothead asked in a faux condescending tone. "I normally don't tell Humans zis but I zhink jou're alright. Jou're bearable sometimes but jou can be much vorse."

"No, jou can't do zis to me!" Random pleaded. "Can't ve at least meet once an Earth month?"

"I'm sorry, no," she said. "The only time we can actually meet again is by sheer chance like in a battle or what have you. If we do meet on those conditions again, we'll move on like nothing ever happened."

"But it's not fair! Jou're my favorite fleshling!"

"Don't cry, big guy. It'll be okay." She smiled gently. "Close your eyes. I have surprise for you. No peeking."

His optics shut. Cynthia sighed steadily.

"I'm never going to interact with him again so I'll repay the favor for him," she thought. "Even if we did actually become real friends and things got deeper from there, it would never work… Now I see I feel something for him. Now that we're parting, it hurts." She cringed, hoping he didn't see it. "I love you, psycho."

She leaned in closer to his faceplate. Taking a chance and finally facing the strange reality, she shut her eyes. Cyndi puckered her lips. A second later, she gingerly placed a kiss on his metal cheek.

Blitzwing felt something tickle his face and for a moment, he thought a butterfly landed on it. When he reopened his optics however, he could see the woman pull her head slowly away from his face. His gaze on her was fixed and unmoving.

"Did jou just kiss me?" he asked.

The accursed blush made its inevitable return. Cynthia felt sheepish and unsure of what to say. Her eyes looked away from his.

"DID SHE JUST DO VHAT I ZHOUGHT SHE DID?" Hothead thundered within the helm.

Icy, on the other hand, had no comment. All he could do was just draw a blank. He had no clue how to react. He didn't know if what just happened was real or not. Right before him, she had bore her dark secret she kept nursed at her heart.

"A Human…" he at last spoke within his head. "A Human is in love vith me? HOW?" Then he directed his attention the currently dominant persona. "Random, say somezhing! Don't just gawk at her like zat!"

"SON OF A GLITCH, I KNEW IT!" Hothead pointed. "SHE'S BLUSHING TOO! IT'S PROOF!"

Cynthia was terribly unnerved by the inactivity he displayed before her. She almost became frightened by this and for a moment, she thought he was going to kill her for bestowing the gift to him. However, she dared not to move for fear of him assuming she'd be trying to escape him.

"Cynzhia," he said at last. "Give me some sugar, baby!"

Cynthia screamed in terror as his face closed in on hers. She bestowed the kiss onto him but she didn't want it returned to her. Although she was in love with him, she didn't want him to know it. She figured that a tiny kiss would relieve the pent up feelings she had for him. Instead, it had gone out of hand.

She ducked from the advances of his metal lips. Blitzwing was amused by her fighting and all he could do was laugh at this. Cynthia was trapped in his servo: she had nowhere to go and he was going to get his kiss.

"Come on!" Random said. "Vhy can't I kiss jou? Jou kissed me!"

"Because this is wrong!" she screeched. "God, you are insane!"

"Cyndi, jou can't resist me! Jou can't escape from me eizher!"

He tried to smooch her again. Once more, she evaded the gesture the love-struck triple changer had for her. Cynthia was compelled to jump out of his servo to escape even though she was about twenty-something feet off the ground.

"Oh, Cynzhia!" he cooed. "Kiss, kiss!"

"No!" she asserted.

"Please!"

"No! No, I said no!"

"Pretty please vith iron filings on top?"

"Blitzwing, please! I shouldn't have done that! I don't know what was running through my mind. Let's just add that to our long list of things that need to be forgotten, alright?"

"Oh, I can't forget about it!"

"I like you as a friend and nothing more!"

"I can change zat, my organic love! I vill have jou kiss me tonight!"

"I want to talk to the other two! Get out!"

Random howled in laughter but did as Cynthia requested. The blue face greeted her a second later.

"I'm terribly sorry for zat!" he apologized. "Zat vas completely uncalled for! Are jou alright? Jou look like a hunted deer."

"I am just so glad you're here instead of Pumpkin Head!" She fell to her knees. Cyndi was now under the impression things would turn out better. "That was really scary…"

"I vonder about somezhing zhough." His typical austere expression softened. "Vhy did jou kiss me?"

Wrong. He wasn't going to let it go. As far as Cynthia knew, she was marked for death by embarrassment.

She choked on nothing, trying to come up with some explanation whether it was rational or just plain stupid. Anything would've sufficed as long as it was something rather than nothing. However, all Cynthia could do was draw a blank and look shamefully stupid in front of her secret crush.

Icy was then abruptly usurped by the angrier personality. Hothead eyed Cyndi with a conflicted look in his optics. He was relieved no one could see them because of his visor. The mech was especially thankful that she couldn't see them.

"Slaggit!" he cursed.

"What did I do?" The woman was at her wit's end.

"I should be asking jou zat question!"

"I'm sorry, Blitzwing, but I don't know what's up! What could I possibly do to you? You're this…" She wanted to say 'criminally handsome and morbidly fascinating metal titan' but she stopped herself. "Huge inorganic giant and I'm a puny Earthling!"

"Jou cast a spell on me!"

"WHAT?"

"Jou are vhat jour species calls a 'sorceress'!"

"Do I look like a person who dapples in the black arts? I don't even believe in witchcraft! It's a bunch of bullshit!"

"Vell, jou did somezhing to me! Cure me!"

"I didn't do anything! You're off your rocker even more so than you already are, Blitzwing!"

"Jou did somezhing, zat's for sure," Random returned. "Jou have no idea!"

"I can't take it anymore!" Icy emerged and yelled.

Since she was trying to make sense of everything, Cynthia's reaction was delayed as he brought his face in closer to hers. The Human flinched. Blitzwing's face was painfully close to hers. She could've sworn she could smell the gasoline that was in her car before he devoured it a few nights earlier.

"Blitzwing," she said weakly, "do we have to have a talk about personal space..?"

"Vhy did jou kiss me?" He voice wasn't menacing but she could tell he wanted an answer to this question. "I just vant to know. Be honest vith me, Cynzhia. I need jou to be honest vith me more zhan jou have ever been. Please, tell me ze truth."

"Why? Blitzwing, I'm really getting freaked out…"

"Don't be afraid. Just be honest. I promise I von't overact or get angry."

"I don't know why I kissed you." It was such a pitiful lie. "It was-…"

"Don't lie, Cynzhia. I can read jou like a book sometimes. Zat vas such an insult of a lie."

"I don't want to tell you. The last thing I need is you to make fun of me. I'm sick of being your personal court jester. Why don't you tell me what's on your mind first and then maybe I'll tell you the truth."

She could see him visibly hesitate. His optics averted from her form for a few seconds.

Without warning, his face changed to Random.

"Okay, I'll tell jou," he said, looking back at Cynthia. "Cyndi, I love jou!"

No. Not ever. How?

Cynthia was completely flabbergasted and shocked by this little bit of information. She could only stare back at him blankly. Her heart throbbed oddly in her chest. In her stomach, she felt like as if a flock of butterflies were fluttering around. Her face felt excruciatingly hot like magma that had been baking in the Earth's mantle for millions of years. Her body felt tense and ponderous like a monolith. The seconds that went by felt like billions of years. The disbelief induced paralysis she suffered from constricted around her body like linen on a mummified pharaoh's corpse.

She had yet to fully confess that she loved him. He said he loved her but she didn't know if this was another one of his games.

"C-Come again?" she stuttered, her lip quivering.

"I love jou!" It was Hothead's turn now. "I'm not gonna repeat it… It's embarrassing."

"You… You're in love with me?"

"Zhere, I said it. Now jou better tell ze truth or I vill break my promise and lose my temper!"

Blitzwing was in love with her? Of all people, why her? Briefly, she evaluated herself. She wasn't a ravishing Aphrodite-like supermodel with perfect hair, perk breasts and a flawless complexion. She wasn't tall. She wasn't a super accomplished and well versed scientist who wowed everyone with her expansive knowledge. Hell, she wasn't even a member of his own species.

Cynthia was Cynthia. She was five foot four. She had a BMI of twenty one point six (which he had poked fun at). She had the tendency to be a paranoid and judging bitch. She was a normal woman trying to maintain her sanity while attending school and looking after her younger siblings. There wasn't anything especially fascinating about her. The only interesting thing about her was that she seemed to be a Blitzwing magnet.

Then, she reminded herself she loved him. Why?

He poked fun at her. They got into several heated discussions. He had threatened her. He was a Decepticon while she was an organic. They had no real reason to even really like each other. Rather, they were supposed to be innate enemies.

But she loved him for various reasons. Blitzwing kept promises with her and she had come to see he could be surprisingly honorable. He had saved her multiple times even when he wasn't required to. Despite the fact he had ruthlessly made fun of her at times, he made her laugh too. He was charming. His personality quirks were almost charismatic and they most certainly kept her on her toes and amused. Strangely enough, Cynthia found him to be physically attractive in both his robot form and his holoform. The thing that was oddest to her was that she thought his true form was the one she thought was the most handsome. Last, but certainly not least, Cyndi was almost certainly convinced he felt concerned for one way or another.

In a nutshell, she couldn't help it. She loved him. Those chance encounters had amounted to this.

"Vell, are jou going to say somezhing or stare?" Hothead's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Cynzhia," Icy said, "it vas not easy for me in ze least bit to admit zat I have developed affections for jou. I'm almost glad zat Random broke ze news to jou first because I know zat it vould take me forever to do so. He's much better zhan I vhen it comes down to matters like zis."

"Is this a joke?" she wanted him to answer question as badly as he wanted her to answer his. "I need to know before I can answer your question."

Blitzwing was becoming frustrated. The way she was guarding her heart from him almost offended him. Cynthia had kissed him which immediately led him to believe she harbored something for him. When his Random side tried to return the favor to her, she reacted with defensive horror. Now, he was confused with her mannerisms. At this point, he greatly regretted baring his spark to her. He'd feel even more dreadful if it turned out that she didn't feel the same way he did for her.

He loved this organic femme. True, she berated and had been curt to him but he loved her. She was amusing to poke fun at. He loved seeing her acting overtly dramatic. She was brave when she had to be and he admired her for that. She was clever to boot and he was proud of her for deceiving members of her own species and the Autobots themselves about their past encounters.

Earlier, he had been under the impression all organics were the same: weak, fickle, shallow, ignorant and untrustworthy. Since Blitzwing found himself becoming partial to Cynthia, he wondered if all Earthlings were what he expected. What he did know was that Cyndi was his favored amongst her race: she needed to be protected. He was going to take up the responsibility. All he needed to know was whether she really would accept him despite their drastic differences.

"Cynzhia," he said softly, "please, I vant jou to understand zat I von't hurt jou. Jou know my spark now zat I have told jou my innermost zhoughts… Do jou trust me?"

Instead of some snide remark or some other statement that completely negated an answer pertaining to the question, Cynthia had a simple one word reply. It was on the tip of her tongue now. Earlier, it had never been there.

"Yes," she nodded. Cyndi raised her hand and placed it on the Decepticon's cheek. "I do."

His smile grew a little larger. Somehow, she could've sworn that his eyes became friendlier. The menacing glint to them had all but vanished.

"Zhen ve vill be alright," Blitzwing murmured. He noticed the trace amount of fear in her eyes and face. "Don't feel afraid. Jou said jou trusted me. It's just us here. No one else is here to intrude."

He drew his face closer to hers. Cynthia could smell the aroma of steel and oil again. Blitzwing lightly rested his forehead against hers, looking directly into her eyes. She couldn't look away from him. His pointer finger gently massaged the back of her skull. Despite the fact he was enormous and she so small, he was extraordinarily careful.

"Cynzhia, I need to hear it," he said. "I need to hear it for myself. I vant to make sure zat zis really is true and not some grave misunderstanding. Do jou love me?"

It was the moment of truth for her. She could say yes or no. Yet, right away, she knew what she wanted to say. Cynthia didn't care about consequences or personal alliances anymore. To Hell with the world. To Hell with people. She was in love and that was that. At last, she saw it was daft to try to deceive him otherwise about her feelings.

"Yes," she sighed, "yes, I do."

"Zhank jou, sveetspark," he said smoothly. "Zat's all I vanted to hear."

Reminding himself of their differences, Blitzwing gingerly placed a kiss on her lips. Her hot face cooled as long as they remained so close. For the first second, Cynthia wanted to yelp in shock but this was quickly drowned. She told herself to shut up and love it.

Now that she had finally confessed her feelings to him, she felt like she could breathe. It felt liberating. Cyndi felt so lucky and almost blessed that he had felt the same way she did. She was one hundred percent sure this was not some game of his. Such a cruel possibility wasn't remotely possibly at the moment. Right there, all that existed in her eyes was this kiss.

A few seconds later, their kiss ended. Cynthia extended her arms and wrapped her arms around his chin, hugging him as best as she could. Blitzwing chuckled softly and ran a finger up and down her spine.

"Now zat I heard it straight from jour mouth, I promise I vill make it vork," he vowed. "I vill keep jou safe from anyone who zhreatens jou. Jou somehow caught my spark and now jou get to keep it. Treat it vell because I vill do ze same for jou."

"I'm not going anywhere now," said Cynthia, still hugging him. "We can stay together right? Now that I know you love me, I don't want to sever our relationship."

"Ve vill remain togezher. Leave it up to me, Cynzhia. I love jou and zat seals ze deal."


	16. Reluctant Approval

**Thanks for the reviews all. :D I'm so relieved I got that friggin chapter done and over with... As for this one, I personally LOL-ed hard at some of the scenes I wrote. That's all I can say. So enjoy the update! **

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 16 Reluctant Approval

(11:30pm)

"Look at that one."

Blitzwing tilted his helm up to the sky when Cynthia spoke. He managed to see a fraction of the blue tail of the shooting star that had raced to the west. Then the triple changer looked back at the organic who sat serenely on his shoulder. All he was greeted with was a loving smile.

"Hi, Cyndi!" Random nuzzled her.

"Hey, big guy." She ran a hand across his face. "How are you doing?"

"Splendid! And how are jou, my lovely?"

"Great. Just great."

They smiled at each other, feeling like star-crossed teenagers at Makeout Point. Both felt so gleeful and giddy that they had finally relayed their true feelings and thoughts to each other. The two of them were also very happy to see that their special other reciprocated with the affection. No one felt the grievous shame of one loving the other yet the lover being unloved in return. Currently, the whole universe was absolutely perfect to the odd couple.

"I love jou, do jou love me?" Random wasn't getting tired of all the fluffiness. Only a fool would say he wasn't hopelessly in love. "Tell me jou love me, Cyndi!"

"I love you," Cyndi said the exact words he wanted to hear. She kissed him. "Don't make me repeat myself."

"Ahahaha! Zis is so vonderful! Vhy don't ve fly up to ze moon and have a picnic on it?"

"That sounds great except my head would explode if I went up without proper space gear."

"Okay, scratch zat! I forgot organics are fragile!"

"I'm content just to stay here," Icy grinned. "Vouldn't jou agree?"

"Why not?" Cynthia shrugged. "I'm happy staying here."

"Good, because I don't vant to vander too much anyvay," said Hothead. "Zhose Autobots could still be around for all I know!"

"They've been gone for three hours. But I totally agree: it would be safe to not move about much."

"Even if zhey did find us, I vould have everyzhing under control! I vouldn't let zem lay zheir filzhy servos on jou! Zhey vill not protect jou: no, I vill!"

"Woah, wait. We need to discuss something, Blitzwing. While we're still here, we ought to talk something over…"

Blitzwing turned his helm ever so slightly to her.

"About vhat?" he asked, intrigued.

"Well, this," she said. Cynthia didn't know where to start. "It's great that we've confessed our feelings for one another but we have to really consider what's going on with the world around us now."

"Jou better not say ve're breaking up! Ve've only confessed our feelings zhree hours ago!"

"If we don't be careful enough, it'll end up getting broken apart and not because of my doing! It's the doing of others."

"I know I certainly von't tell anyone. Not even Megatron vill find out!"

"No one can know." She sighed. "It's weird for the both of us. I love you, you love me… I don't think anyone from my species or your species will approve of an interspecies romance."

"So, ve just be smart," said Random. "How hard is zat?"

"Yes, we will have to be smart. We can't afford to be reckless. We'll both have to plot our moves very carefully. I don't want to get caught and I know you don't want to get caught either."

"Yes, I see zat," Icy frowned. "I agree vith jou zhough. It irks me zat ve cannot be togezher normally but given our circumstances, ve must adapt to zem." He gingerly ran the tip of his finger against the back of her skull, massaging it. "I promised I vould make zhings vork. I intend to keep zat promise."

"Don't be too extreme, alright? You'll end up endangering us both."

"If jou ever see an Autobot, go ze ozher vay," Hothead ordered. "Because if I see zat one of zem has jou, I vill not hesitate to attack zem to have jou vith me."

"See, that's an issues right there, Blitzwing. We have to learn to control ourselves if we're ever together in public. We need to pretend we don't know each other."

"Zat vill be very hard for me to do, especially if an Autobot is around like I said. Zhey are my enemies and if I see my femme near one, I'm gonna tear him into so many pieces, his comrades von't even be able to recognize him!"

"Try your hardest, please?"

He sighed, shaking his helm. This Human was softening his spark way more than what he wanted her to. Blitzwing couldn't help it though.

"I'll try," he rumbled.

"Thank you," she grinned. "You're a great big softie when you want to be."

"Only for jou!" Random beamed. "But vat about jour siblings?"

"I'll figure something out."

Blitzwing remembered he detected their heat signatures when he and Cynthia were in the lot behind the apartment building.

"Uh, about zat," Icy said, "I have a feeling zat vhenever I take jou home, jou may have some explaining to do."

"What do you mean?" Her gaze hardened.

"I didn't vant to tell jou but I believe jour siblings vere spying on us before ve flew here."

"I knew it…"

"Do jou need me by jour side vhen jou talk to zem? I can help explain everyzhing to zem. Not only zat, I zhink jour sister may be prone to violence…"

"I appreciate your concern but I think you'd only make things worse. No offense but I don't think they'd be happy to see us side by side. I will explain it to them. I will try my best to avoid telling them we're in love but they're already extremely suspicious of me enough as it is. Don't worry about Mandy either. I can take her on if she does decide to get physical. I really doubt that though."

"If zat's ze case, jou must not keep zem vaiting for so long. Jou're also zheir guardian."

"You're right…"

It tortured her immensely that already she could see that they could never have a normal romance. She couldn't even really go out on a date with him. The only time they could ever hope to go out in public would be in his holoform and she didn't want to him to do that all the time. Cynthia was in love with Cybertronian, not the disguise.

To a certain extent, she wondered if it was even smart to kiss him and admit her feelings to him. She did love Blitzwing but she was caught up in her feelings. She was fully aware of the consequences should they kiss and make their secret known to one another but she rashly ignored them. Now she almost wished she was still in love with Wes just to spare her and the triple changer of the possible dangers of being together.

Blitzwing could see the concern and uncertainty in her face. He hated to see her like this but he knew that deep down, he felt the same. He felt his conscious pester him. They were extremely different but that didn't stop him from developing strong affections for her. She was Human as he was a Decepticon. Very naturally, they were meant to be predestined foes. Megatron would not smile upon this at all…

But he loved her. He was going to try to keep her away from the Autobots themselves who had sworn to protect her kind. To the best of his abilities, he was also going to try to preserve her from the wrath of his fellow 'Cons. The only way he could do that was to never even speak her name or hint to her while in their midst.

"I guess I ought to head home and try to come up with some elaborate lie," Cynthia said dismally. "But if you said they were in the woods spying on us… I wonder if it's even worth the effort."

"Just do vhat jou can," Blitzwing encouraged. "I vill keep jour existence a secret from my comrades. Are jou sure jou don't vant me to be vith jou vhile jou talk to jour siblings?"

"No, thank you. Like I said, it'll only make things worse. I can control them better when it's just me."

"Very vell. I vill take jou home now."

(…)

She didn't want to let his hand go. Cyndi ignored the coldness of the holoform since she was much rather focused on the conflict within her. They stood at the top of the stairwell, looking down the corridor that the Prestons' apartment was located in. The woman wanted him to go in with her but she feared things could get dangerously out of hand if he should accompany her.

"When will we see each other again?" she spoke softly to him, careful not to wake any of her neighbors.

"Soon, I promise," Random winked at her. "I don't vant to stay avay for too long but I don't vant to get caught…"

"Don't go out of your way for me. Don't do anything reckless that will endanger your personal safety. You're a robot: use that superior brainpower."

"Jou too," said Hothead. "Stay avay from zhose Autobots. Can I also trust jou to stay out of trouble so I don't have to bail jou out?"

"I'll try. But I guess I'm one of those gals who tend to be the damsel in distress. In other words, I'm extremely unlucky."

"I vill come after jou. I don't vant jou to go after me. Jou'll be endangering jourself zat vay."

"Okay, okay. Besides, you have a talent for rooting me out and stalking me so I guess I ought to leave it up to you."

They kissed. As always, he was frigid to the touch but she told herself she'd have to get used to this especially if they wanted to engage in deeper kisses that were otherwise impossible to achieve in his robot form. The same two odors of metal and oil were stronger when they kissed but they weren't pungent: in fact, it was almost like aromatherapy to her. When she got used to the chilliness, it wasn't so bad. It was just bittersweet to her because this was no real man. It was only an illusion.

"Good luck," said Icy.

"Thanks, I'll need it," she nodded. They let each other go. "I love you."

He placed his hand over his nonexistent heart. There was an almost sorrowful look in his vibrant and beautiful eyes. To negate that lachrymose expression, there was a smile on his face.

"I love jou as vell, sveetspark," he said.

He turned around and walked down the stairwell while Cynthia walked down the corridor.

"Is this the right thing to do?" she questioned herself. "I do love him. But what if we are just way too different?"

She stuck the key into the lock. Surprisingly, Cynthia discovered it was already unlocked. Taking the key out, she turned the knob and walked into the apartment.

It was pitch black. There was no soft glow that radiated from the TV's screen. The bathroom nightlight wasn't even turned on.

Cynthia closed and locked the door behind her. She kicked her boxy boots off and removed her spacious ski jacket. Soundlessly, she walked further into her living space. It was all too quiet.

"Hello, Cynthia."

Cyndi yelped, not expecting Mandy to greet her. Her eyes tried to penetrate the darkness but she could see no sign of her sister.

"Mandy!" Cyndi exhaled sharply. "Why don't you turn on a light or something? It's like the abyss in here!"

"Sure." Amanda sounded odd. "Why not?"

A second later, the lamp that sat on top of the entertainment center flickered to life. Mandy sat in a chair next to the furniture piece with her legs crossed. Her arms were folded across her chest. On her face, she wore an extremely displeased scowl. Her green eyes were narrowed in hostility.

"Mandy..?" Cynthia proceeded carefully. "What's up with this?"

"What?" Mandy shrugged. "I'm fine. What're you talking about?"

"Never mind."

"How was your GreenPeace meeting? Did you protest outside a factory with them? You smell like oil and steel."

Cynthia actually felt afraid before her little sister. She had never felt that way before. Desperately, her mind tried to formulate some kind of story to explain her evening.

"How was the bus ride to the campus?" the blonde pressed. She rose out of her seat. "Was your college buddy with you?" Amanda approached Cynthia. "Did you have fun hanging out with him? He's quite the character, isn't he?"

"Mandy…" Cyndi swallowed hard. "Back off."

"NO, I WILL NOT!"

Cynthia flinched at the intensity of her voice. Amanda's eyes blazed with fury, confusion and woe. The younger sister only drew closer to her guardian.

"You went off with Blitzwing again," she hissed. "Don't you dare lie to me, Cynthia. Darien and I followed you out to the lot. We saw him. We heard your cute little conversation."

"It's not what you think," Cynthia floundered within her mind for an explanation.

"Then what the Hell is it? What, you're best friggin friends with that freakshow? You have been lying to me from the very beginning, Cynthia. I'm not gonna take it anymore. I want answers and I want them now. I'm sick of the lying!"

"Where's Darien?"

"DARIEN, WAKE UP NOW!"

The boy was in a dead sleep but when he heard Amanda screech the first time, he had woken up. By the time his eldest sibling wanted to know of his whereabouts, he was in his bedroom doorway. Sleepily, he approached his sisters.

"Cyndi," he rubbed his eyes, "you're back..?"

"Yes, she most certainly is," Mandy's voice dripped of malice and anger.

"What's that smell?"

"Steel and oil. Haven't you heard, Darien? It's a new perfume Cyndi wanted to use. It's called _Le Blitz_."

"You better shut your mouth up right now, bitch," Cynthia dangerously warned. "I'll send your ass back to Greenvale with Mom and Dad."

"Yeah, do it, Cyndi. If you do that, I will tell Mom and Dad everything. They will call the army and they will kill him. Then, no more Blitzwing. The world will be better off without him."

"Face it, Mandy, I just know that deep down, you're jealous. You haven't been able to score any boyfriends because you're such a licentious and shallow Jezebel."

"Guys," Darien got between his sisters. "Calm down. Let's talk this over peacefully, okay?"

"'JEZEBEL?'" Amanda fumed. "You're a traitor to your own species!"

Mandy swung at Cynthia. Moving out of the way, Cyndi ducked, avoiding the ill-aimed punch. Darien lassoed his arms around the greatest aggressor, pulling the green eyed girl away.

"Let go!" Amanda was near the point of foaming at the mouth. "I have to settle the score!"

"Not like this, Sis!" Darien fumbled to restrain her.

"Yes, it has to be this way! Let go of me, Darien! You ought to be just as angry as me!"

"I'm gonna listen to Cyndi calmly like a normal person! Not like a rabid dog for God's sake!"

Amanda flailed around, bucking her legs and growling with ferocious ire. Her eyes were focused on Cynthia with a deadly and intimidating gaze. Never before did the eldest Preston sibling see such fury in her little sister. Never did she ever believe she would stand as an enemy before her.

"How could you do this to us?" Amanda demanded, tears streaming from her eyes. "This isn't you! Did they place some mind control device in your brain while you were unconscious? That's gotta be it!" She inhaled deeply. "I WANT THE TRUTH NOW!"

"Is zis screaming really necessary?"

The three organics were completely unprepared for this unrelated voice to interfere in this extremely volatile matter. Amanda and Darien looked behind Cynthia, seeing a man literally walking through the door like a ghost. The boy released his sister in his horror, disbelieving a person just walked through the door (he wondered for a moment if he was street magician. If so, he was automatically going to be his hero). Amanda's eyes grew wide, already knowing the identity of the intruder.

Cyndi glanced over her shoulder, seeing Blitzwing's holoform stop just behind her. He placed a hand on her shoulder assuredly. His eyes were incessantly studying her siblings, particularly Mandy.

"Vell, here I am," Icy said solemnly. "Jou vanted to confront me, didn't jou, Amanda? Vhy don't jou call ze army?" He smiled wickedly. "I'm a mere man."

"You're not a man," Mandy shook her head as her color whitened. "You're a monster."

"Look, bro," Darien raised his hands in a surrendering posture, "I don't want trouble. I just want to live. I don't wanna be a stain under your foot."

"Don't call me 'bro', punk," Hothead grimaced.

"Blitzwing, stop it," Cynthia ordered. "I don't need you making matters worse."

"What did you do to my sister?" Mandy demanded. "She's brainwashed!"

"I did nozhing to her," the fiery personality said. "She's fine. I didn't do anyzhing bad to her. Instead, I saved her!"

"I know, she told us all that! But I want to know what you did to my sister to have her stick up for you!"

"Why are you here dropping in on our conversation?" Darien cautiously questioned the triple changer. "You creepin?"

Blitzwing hesitated for a moment. True, he had gone against Cynthia's desires to let her deal with her irate sister and calm yet concerned brother. He had been listening in on their dialogue since Cyndi had entered the apartment. He just couldn't let her do it alone. Amanda had especially concerned him and he didn't want her to lose her temper even further and cause damage to his organic beau. If things had turned that bad and if Cyndi was injured by Mandy's unbridled fury, Blitzwing himself would lash out at the blonde and end up losing his temper as well.

"I'm not letting Cynzhia go zhrough zis alone," he told the boy and girl. "I cannot allow eizher of jou to harm her lest jou vould become impatient and angered vith her. I'm only protecting her."

"Tell us now," Amanda said lowly. "Either you or her will say what's going on. I want to hear it with my own ears." She cringed. "I have a feeling in my guts I know what's up though…"

"Cyndi, come over here," Darien beckoned innocently. He was tortured by seeing his sister with the holoform. "Please?"

Although she was no mother, her maternal instincts struck a chord in her heart. Cyndi's eyes softened. She looked back at her love.

"Let me go," she said.

Blitzwing had no desire to cause any more strife than what was currently reigning. His hand retreated without hesitation and he let her approach Darien.

"It's okay," Cynthia kissed her brother's forehead.

"Cyndi," the teenage boy murmured, "what's going on? I'm really scared for you."

Amanda's hostility was now being bore to Blitzwing. Deep down, she believed he was the source of Cynthia's mannerisms and uncharacteristic lying. She wanted revenge for that. There was no way a Decepticon was going to manipulate her family member and get away with it.

"Is my sister in love with you?" She cut straight to the point. "Are you in love with her?"

"Yes and yes!" Random said airily. "As a matter of fact, ve had our first kiss tonight! Yes, ve are so in love! It is vonderful!"

She wanted to cry right then and there. Amanda's mouth parted and remained opened. Her knees felt like they were made of water. Her brain had a monumental time of trying to process the information she had just received. It was all so unusual and warped.

"You kissed my sister?" she said amazingly calmly.

Darien could only laugh. However, it was an extremely unsure and anxious one that he let loose. He shook his head.

"No, no, no, no," he repeated quickly. "No, this is a joke." His awkward laughter increased in volume. "This is a joke!" He elbowed Amanda. "Mandy, laugh! They're just pulling our legs! None of this is real! In fact, this is all some screwed up dream!" Darien turned to Cynthia. "Is this real?"

"You may not want to hear it but it is," Cynthia admitted, seeing that she couldn't hope to conceal anything from them now that Blitzwing was in their midst. "It's all true. Blitzwing's telling the truth."

"I give up," Mandy said apathetically. "As of now, I refuse to know what you plan on doing with your life." Her stare was void of any emotion. "Do what you want, Cynthia. I will live with you but I won't ask questions anymore. I'm done. I don't care. I'm gonna sit back and watch you screw up your life. I'll only watch and move on. You can do whatever floats your boat. If you think it's fun to run off with Decepticons, have at it." She glanced over at Blitzwing but still directed her conversation to her sister. "If he hurts you somehow or kills you, don't say I told you so. I thought you had a good brain in that head: apparently, I was dead wrong. It's about as functional as Blitzwing's."

"She's in good servos," Hothead returned the malice to her. "I stepped into here for a reason: to protect her from jou."

Even though her anger towards her sister was still blazing like a tremendous inferno, Mandy couldn't help to still feel protective of her. Her pointer finger extended at the holoform. She wanted to tell him so much, she didn't even know where to begin. For a few seconds, she remained silent until she somehow managed to condense everything she thought.

"If you threaten or hurt my sister in any way, shape or form," she threatened, "I will make you regret it. Yes, I'm a puny Earthling. Yes, I have no magic powers or any other extraordinary X-Men-like abilities. But I promise I will make your life a living Hell. By God, I will make you pay…I just wanted to give you a heads up, Deceptidouche."

She turned around and began to walk out of the living room. Her arms wrapped around her body as she felt like she was becoming sick to her stomach. Amanda's eyes welled up with tears while her back was turned to Cynthia, Darien and Blitzwing. The eighteen year old felt as if she had been betrayed and someone had thrust a sword made of the coldest, hardest ice into the ether of her very soul.

"Have at it, Cyndi," she said, halting at her bedroom door. "He's all yours."

Soundlessly, she opened the door and slipped through the crack in it. With an equal lack of sound, she shut it and removed herself from the affair for the evening.

Darien took a few steps back. The reality he was in the same space as a ruthless metal killer didn't sit well with him. He looked at Blitzwing like a baby moose being cornered by a grizzly bear.

"Vould it comfort jou for me to say zat I do not consider jou a target?" Icy spoke.

The boy flinched when he talked. Then he propped himself, trying to improve his posture.

"Yeah, that's cool," he said, trying to act tough. "That's great to hear."

"Because jou are Cynzhia's siblings, I vill extend mercy to jou," Blitzwing explained. "However, I vould greatly appreciate it if jou kept jour mouth shut about zis little secret of mine."

"Dude…" Darien stopped himself, for fear of inciting his wrath. "Blitzwing. Blitz… Is that alright if I call you Blitz?"

Cynthia chuckled. The holoform rolled his eyes.

"It doesn't matter," Blitzwing replied. "Just don't call me 'bro'."

"Great, swell, stupendous!" Darien rambled. "That'll fly. You uh…" He hesitated again. The young man wet his lips. "You know to treat Cyndi right, don't you? That's my big sis there. I love her."

"Don't vorry, little man!" Random said.

"His name is Darien," Cynthia droned.

"Darien! I vill remember it! Darien, I vill take good care of Cynzhia. I am a reliable bot. Jou can trust me!"

Darien didn't trust him though. He was a Decepticon: evil, cruel, heartless, dishonorable, conniving, opportunistic and deceptive. He was an agent of the silver tyrant, Megatron. This 'Con had no respect for life and rather worshipped destruction and death just like his comrades. The boy just couldn't understand what Cynthia saw in Blitzwing to fall in love with him.

"Sis…" He wanted to ask Cynthia if this was really what she wanted. But again, he feared the triple changer's fury. "I'm going back to bed. I'll talk to you tomorrow morning."

"Okay," she said. "Sleep well."

Not another word passed through the boy's lips and he made a beeline to his room. He opened the bedroom door, walked in and then closed it behind him.

"Are jou sure jou have everyzhing under control?" Hothead asked. The holoform had a stony gaze. "Or do I have to remain here to prevent jour sister from murdering jou?"

"No, you have to leave," Cynthia said in a tired tone. "If they wake up tomorrow morning and find that you're still here, they'll flip. Darien will have a coronary and Amanda will have a mental breakdown. I do appreciate your concern but I'll be alright. I want you to go for real. Don't hover behind like you did earlier. You don't want to get caught by your friends, do you?"

"I don't vant to get caught but I don't vant jour psychotic sister to kill jou!"

"I'll deal with it. I think she won't get physical anymore. She's done arguing like she said." The woman exhaled. "She's exhausted herself. Thank God Darien is much more compliant and calm."

Blitzwing eyed her inquisitively. His arms unfolded.

"Zat boy is cowardly," he smirked.

"Yes, just like I was when I first met you," Cynthia defended him. "Cut him some slack." She changed the subject. "So much for a secret affair, huh?"

"Jou trust zem to keep zheir mouths shut?" Icy wondered.

"I do. Darien will keep quiet because he doesn't want to end up getting abducted by you or your friends and then made a prisoner in that base. Mandy will threaten to lift the veil but I doubt it if she will go that far. She's reliable and I trust her to keep it all quiet."

"So, ve didn't plan on having zem find out but ve can't make anymore exceptions… I don't mean to degrade jou or jour family but I vould much prefer zem to have found out razher zhan my comrades. My comrades are not very understanding vhen it comes down to relations of ze spark. Both of us vould be in a great deal of trouble if such a zhing happened."

"I agree fully. You're not telling me much, that's for sure."

"Vhere is zat celluar device of jours?"

"Why?"

"May I see it?"

"Wait a minute." Cynthia pulled the cell phone out of her back pocket. She held it in her hand. "What do you need it for? You better not eat it."

He laughed softly.

"Jou vill never let me hear ze end of zat," he shook his head. "Zat vas Random. I vouldn't do zat." Blitzwing took the phone out of her hold. "I just need to see it for a moment."

As it sat in the palm of his hand, tiny blue sparks began to emanate from the cell phone. Cynthia recoiled, not wanting to get electrocuted. The microscopic lightning storm only persisted for a few seconds before the flurry of sparks subsided. When he meant a moment, he really did mean a moment.

"Zhere, all done!" Random chimed.

"What did you do to my phone?" Cynthia was puzzled. "It looked like it short circuited."

He gently deposited it back into her hand. Cyndi was relieved to see she didn't get shocked in the process. She opened up the cell phone, seeing her screen looked normal.

"Jou can call me on my comm now!" he said. "Ve can talk to each ozher vhenever ve vant!"

"I'm surprised it even vorked to be honest," said the calm persona. "I converted ze frequency for my comm into a code zat jour device can use and reach me effectively."

"Oh, that is so cool!" Cynthia was astonished. "So I can call you normally..?"

"Yes."

"Awesome…" She put the phone back into her pocket. "Now, I can't keep you here any longer."

"I understand. I ought to get back to my own home to let my brezheren know I'm not up to anyzhing."

"Be careful, Blitzwing." She embraced the holoform. Her head rested against his chest but she could hear no heart beat. It didn't surprise her. "I love you."

"I vill," said Hothead. "Jou be careful. I connected jour cellular device to my comm for a reason. Do not be afraid to contact me if jou are in any trouble. I vill be zhere before jou know it." He kissed the crown of her head. "Promise me zat jou vill call me if jou have to."

"Alright but I'm only going to do it out of sheer necessity. I'm not doing it if I drop the groceries."

"Hey, I'll do zat just to see jou, Cyndi!" Random nuzzled her. "I love jou!"

"Ve'll talk later regarding vhen ve'll meet up again," said Icy. "Sleep vell, Cynzhia."

"You too. Try to make up where we screwed up when it comes down to hiding this from the other Decepticons."

"Of course. If zhey vere to find out, not only jou and I vould pay but jour sister and brozher as vell."

The holoform steadily dissolved before her very eyes. Cynthia bit her lip.

"We just doomed each other," she mumbled. "I can't help it though."


	17. A Brother's Concern

**Thanks for the reviews everyone! Okay, since I've been pumping out chapters very frequently for this story, I'm going to take a break and pay some attention to another story I'm working on that I've been writing alongside TM. I plan to at least update this story once a week or once every two weeks, depending on what ideas I have, spare time etc. Thankfully, I practically have this whole story plotted out so hopefully that'll make me motivated to stay on track with it. Thanks for understanding! Enjoy the update!**

**Note: there are hints to a background story I've created for two canon characters. This is by no means canon so don't bite my head off for it. **

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 17 A Brother's Concern

(January 12th – 8:45 am)

Cynthia sat at her kitchen table, contently sipping on a cup of hot chocolate. She quietly studied some frost that had fringed the corners of the kitchen window. The apartment was quiet: Darien had left for school and Amanda was sleeping in. Everything seemed so serene and pristine to her even though a screaming match had ensued over eight hours earlier in the living space.

Lying next to the delicious, piping hot drink was her cell phone. More than anything else, Cyndi was tempted to contact Blitzwing on his comm now that he had supposedly linked her up to him. Hearing his three voices greet her a good morning would've been sublime.

Sighing, she leaned back in her seat. Before she had fallen in love with him, her only wish was to live the way she planned out for herself. All she desired was to maintain her sanity, buy a house by Erie and live out an uneventful and placid life. Much further down the road, after she had stable finances, she'd consider sharing her life with a special someone. Maybe she and her unknown love would get married and have a child or two. Other than that, Cyndi really didn't desire anything else.

Yet now that she found herself in love with the triple changer, her wishes had drastically morphed. Now, she wanted to fly through the air freely in his hands without fear of being seen or scrutinized by Autobots, Decepticons or her own race. She wanted to love him openly and liberally. She didn't want to hide it like it was some sort of mortal and unspeakable sin. She didn't want to try to hide it from God himself. But she had no choice otherwise.

Cynthia didn't even hear Amanda emerge from her bedroom. She only became aware of her presence when she got the unshakeable feeling she was being watched. Turning around in her seat, she spotted the blonde looking at her blankly.

"Good morning," Cyndi greeted softly.

"Morning," Mandy relayed.

Neither of them wished to break the stare. They waited patiently, half-expecting one to say something to the other. Both of them reflected on the previous tense night.

"Well, it's good to see you're alive," Amanda murmured.

"I'm not starting anything," her sister retorted. "I want to enjoy my hot chocolate."

"By all means."

Amanda joined her elder sibling at the kitchen table. She sat across her and leaned over the table, her elbows digging into the tabletop. Despite the fact she had vented and fumed last night and she swore she wouldn't get involved with Cynthia's dealings any more, she couldn't help to feel extremely curious. Jealousy gnawed at her but she set that aside. Since she discovered that the man with the ruby eyes was Blitzwing in a disguise, she had absolutely no desire to consider him as a potential conquest. In fact, she felt disgusted and shameful for flirting with him: the hilarious and disturbing reality she had developed a flimsy flirtation for him bothered her greatly. Amanda knew what he was and she certainly didn't like it.

"I want to talk," she said to Cynthia.

"Drop it now," the brunette ordered. "I won't have you ruin my morning."

"Let me speak, alright? I slept on it last night."

"What, do you suddenly approve of my romance?"

Amanda sighed laboriously.

"Girl, you are crazy," she said. "You are really bold to do this."

"So?" Cynthia shrugged. "Sometimes you have to let loose."

"By being Blitzwing's girlfriend? I still don't understand it. What do you see in him? Why couldn't you fall in love with a real man?" Cyndi glared at her. Mandy blinked, not expecting such a hostile stare. "Look, I'm only concerned for my best friend. You're endangering yourself."

"Yes, I am well aware of that. But I love him and that's that."

"You do know he's a Decepticon?"

"No shit. Why the Hell do you think I resisted him so strongly in the beginning?"

"I was just checking. I'm just very confused as to how this all happened. I just don't get it."

"Exactly. You won't ever get it because you weren't there. You're not me."

"Look, Cynthia." Amanda took her hands and held them in hers. "I'm scared for you. I love you. I care for you. I don't want you to get hurt or die. You protected me and looked after me when we were kids. You were always there for me. Now I feel that I must return the favor of looking after me for eighteen years. I don't want him to hurt you."

"Mandy, trust me… He won't let anything hurt me. I trust him. I can tell he loves me and I believe him when he says he will take care of me."

"He better, that's all I know. I warned him well last night… Do you think he's actually one of the nicer 'Cons?"

"I can't really say considering I've never met the other three. I don't intend on crossing paths with them anytime soon, that's for sure." She pulled her hands out of Mandy's grip. "All I ask of you is to keep quiet. Don't tell Mom or Dad. Don't tell the police. Don't especially tell the Autobots. I don't need the shame and neither does Blitzwing. I want to see where this romance will go between us and I will not have you or anyone screw this up for me. Have I made myself crystal clear?"

"Yeah, perfectly…" Amanda swallowed hard. "I want to apologize for last night. I was totally freaked out and caught off guard. I couldn't control my temper. I do want to be a part of your life: I'm your sister. I will keep it all a secret. I have a question though."

"What?"

"What will you do when Blitzwing is ordered by his leader to kill people? What'll happen when the Decepticons really start to try to take over Earth?" Her green eyes hardened. "Will you two still be in love? Or will this all turn out to be some weird version of Romeo and Juliet?"

(Detroit High School – 9:00am)

"Tristan Cooley, you will be paired with Darien Preston," the biology teacher, Mr. Clark, announced. "Alright, class: get together with your partners and let's start. We'll be dissecting grasshoppers today. We'll graduate to more complicated specimens later on this year..."

The newest addition to the junior class scowled. She remembered who Darien was mostly because he hung out with his friends, Paul, Benji and Teddy who were infamous class clowns. The friends annoyed her and she considered Darien to be the lesser disturbance but she still found herself irked by him. Tristan wasn't too keen on having a biology lab partner either way mainly because she preferred to work alone. Having a partner would just hinder her progress.

She heard the chair screech next to her as it was pulled out. Faintly, she could hear Darien sit down on the seat.

"Hey, I noticed you're new," the boy said. Tristan didn't look back at him. "My name's Darien."

"Yeah, I noticed," she said shortly. "I'm Tristan."

"Well, uh… It's nice to meet you. Are you from around here?"

"I moved here about a year ago with my parents."

"Cool, where're you from?"

"You're a stranger and so I don't really want to talk right now."

"Well, since we're lab partners for the rest of the year, I thought we'd like to get to know each other a little more…"

Tristan visibly cringed at that reality. She sighed, disbelieving she had to be sent to a school like this. More than anything else, she preferred cyber school.

"Yeah, I'm aware of that," she said, finally locking gazes with him. "But let's take this at a slow pace, alright? I'm not in the best of moods now."

"That works too…" Darien bit his lower lip. "You're not squeamish, are you?"

Tristan stared back at him emotionlessly. She picked up the scalpel and she began to slice the grasshopper open. Darien was taken slightly aback by how she cut through the insect's back with almost surgical precision without damaging its organs or even shattering its crunchy exoskeleton.

"Are you a cutter?" he asked.

"Ugh, no," Tristan replied. "My dad's a woodcarver in his spare time. I help him out with his sculptures sometimes."

"Neat. You didn't get grossed out or anything."

"A bug's a bug. There're far messier things than that."

"You need help with dissecting the pigs later?"

"We'll see. It depends on how grossed out you get."

Darien laughed softly.

"Do I sense a challenge?" he said.

"Not at all," the new girl answered. "I was just saying I can do a better job than you with dissections."

"Ms. Cooley and Mr. Preston," Mr. Clark rose his voice. "It's great to see you two socializing but you can do it on your own time."

The two fell silent. They could feel the gaze of their fellow classmates fall on them. Darien could've sworn he heard Paul stifling a laugh.

(the mall – 1:30pm)

The girls thought that in order to reaffirm their bond and in order to try to not dwell on last night's events, they'd go shopping together at the mall. Anything to take their minds off the viciousness of the fight would've done wonderfully. What better way to do that than to waste some money at overpriced outlet stores? They could help each other shop for clothes, grab lunch at the food court, gossip and waste time. It was a nice escapade from the realities that had been born from Cynthia's unorthodox romance.

"How about that one?" Amanda pointed at a random guy who was standing alone by a wishing fountain. "He looks to be around your age. He's got brown hair, brown eyes… He looks a bit chubby but he's cute."

"Go for it," Cynthia said nonchalantly. "I'm not man-hunting for myself."

"If it was another alien robot, you'd be checking him out." She playfully elbowed Cynthia. "I didn't know until last night that you liked them big, metal and crazy."

"Shut up, perv. Unlike you, I'm monogamous."

"I've heard that word before… What is its meaning?"

"See?"

"Whatever." The man they were spying on walked away, off to fulfill whatever business consisted of his agenda. "He was too chubby anyway."

"Okay, let me ask you a question, little sis: what is your ideal man? I'm curious."

"First and foremost, he's gotta be handsome! When I mean handsome, I mean drop dead gorgeous. He has to be totally charismatic like Rudolph Valentino too. He has to have skin as smooth as a baby's bottom, silky and great smelling hair… He also has to be young: I refuse to date dinosaurs. He has to smell really good too like cinnamon or mint. Also, he has to have a good paying job because I don't want to get married to a bum who can't support me."

"Anything else, my queen?"

"Yes! I'm not finished with my criteria yet! I have one more point: my perfect man will never ever have red-colored eyes!"

Cynthia laughed. Amanda was being totally serious on the other hand. She placed her hands on her hips.

"Well at least I know you're not too loose after all," Cyndi chuckled. "But the thing is you gush over handsome guys anyway even though they don't meet your perfect standards. Come on, you have to admit that. To be honest, I'm surprised you're still a virgin."

"Hey, I just like to flirt and fantasize from afar with the lesser men," Amanda held her head up. "I'm not lowering myself until I do find my Prince Charming. If I remember rightly, you were the same, weren't you?"

"I told myself I wouldn't fall for anyone until I got my life settled. Looks like that burst into flames though." She smiled. "There's nothing wrong with that though."

Mandy wore a thoughtful expression on her face, remembering that her sister's love was no mere man. She didn't feel like fighting with her about Blitzwing again especially in such a public place so she decided to keep her mouth shut. Still, even after wracking her brain to try to decipher what Cynthia saw in him, she felt confused and unfulfilled. There was no reason to be found in her sister's unearthly choice of affection.

"It doesn't bother you that you can never have a real relationship with him?" Amanda spoke softly. "It would drive me crazy. I don't think I could continue on with it. I mean, what if you discovered how much you really cared for him as time went on? You couldn't be able to marry him. You especially wouldn't be able to have kids him. Wouldn't the both of you be miserable if that was the case?"

"I prefer to not think about it," Cyndi said. "Even though I have developed feelings for him fairly recently, I've seen how much I care for him. I will stick with him because I love him. I will remain with him for as long as possible. I know he feels the same about me and he will do whatever it takes as well. We'll get through whatever rears its ugly head. If our relationship does persist through the years and our love deepens, that's great. I don't want him to change for me. I don't need him to be someone else to keep me happy. It's too early to even consider marriage or other hefty commitments like that."

Personally, Mandy saw it as a path to self-destruction and misery. Again, she kept her mouth sealed shut.

(Decepticon base – 5:00pm)

Megatron's optics flared dangerously like a furnace that had a keg of gasoline thrown into it. He growled gutturally which sounded an awful like a crocodile's bellow. His servos clenched the arm rests on his throne as he fought back his lust to kill with all his might. The head 'Con believed he had a lot of patience but he had quickly seen that was not the case.

"_I'm a shooting star leaping zhrough ze sky like a tiger defying ze laws of gravity!_" Even through the thick stone walls, Megatron could hear Blitzwing singing loudly and cheerfully."_I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva! I'm gonna go, go, go, zhere's no stopping me! I'm burning zhrough ze sky, yeah! Two hundred degrees, zat's vhy zhey call me Mr. Fahrenheit..!_"

Never before did Megatron want to kill someone for singing so severely. Only Blitzwing would compel him do that to someone for such an activity. His teeth gritted and again, he tried to tell himself it wasn't worth killing the triple changer. He was a loyal acolyte and a worthy solider. But this singing drove him up a wall. Ever since Blitzwing awoke from recharge, he sang all day.

"Starscream!" Megatron wailed.

The seeker was lounging in the corner of the room, examining his claws. Casually, he was leaning against the cave wall, pretending as if he didn't hear Blitzwing sing. His optics raised up, engaging Megatron.

"Yes, my lord?" he said calmly.

"You will tell Blitzwing to cease this ridiculous singing immediately!" Megatron thought he was ready to go insane. "I can't do it myself because if I go confront himself, I will be unable to restrain the lust to slice his helm off! He is greater use to me alive than dead…" His right optic was twitching. "Tell him to silence himself or I will make him face an unholy wrath greater than any suffering in the Pit!"

"I will do so now, my liege. I will warn him of your anger and I can assure you that he quiet down."

"Oh, he better… Go now before I turn on you!"

Starscream hurried out of the throne room, actually believing the Decepticon lord would turn on him. He certainly didn't doubt it might come about considering the seeker knew he and Megatron weren't necessarily the best of friends nor were they on very trusting terms.

"_Don't stop me, don't stop me, don't stop me hey, hey! Don't stop me, don't stop me, ooh, ooh!_"

"Just what is that crazy son of a glitch up to?" Starscream grumbled to himself. "He's been singing these stupid upbeat songs even more so than usual! What crawled up his tailpipe and died, releasing fumes of happiness?" He wrinkled his nasal bridge. "Wait, that doesn't even sound right." Starscream shook his helm. "Better tell the fragger to shut up or die."

The air commander merely followed the sound of his voice, leading him directly to Blitzwing's room. With each step he took, it sounded progressively louder and all the more obnoxious. Although Random loved to sing, he certainly didn't have the most smooth and angelic voice. Starscream felt as if his audio receptors were being scrambled. He wouldn't be surprised if energon started to bleed from them.

"Blitzwing!" He pounded his balled up servo on the door. "Megatron commands me to speak to you!"

The singing abruptly died.

"Slag, like ve really needed ze attention!" Hothead cursed. "Good going, idiot! Jour singing caused zis!"

"I can't help it!" said Random.

"I can hear you in there!" Starscream raised his voice. "Let me in!"

"Fine," Icy said bitterly.

Blitzwing obviously sounded displeased but this didn't deter the second in command. A few seconds passed and the door swept open as the triple changer deactivated the locking mechanism. The two mechs were standing before each other now.

"Stop singing," Starscream announced. "Megatron commands it."

"Zat vas Random," Hothead complained. "He vas singing all day!"

"Yes, everyone is aware of that! I'm surprised you didn't sing loud enough to wake the organic dead! Megatron is becoming very annoyed by it so I suggest you cut it out while you're ahead." He took a step closer. "You do want to live, right?"

"If Megatron has ordered me to stop, zhen I vill."

"But can I just hum?" Random begged.

"Why do you insist on making music?" Starscream felt awfully investigative and curious. "Is there a method to this madness of yours?"

"I'm only in a very happy mood!"

"What's so wonderful that's making you rejoice as if the universe is so carefree and good?"

"None of jour business!" Hothead glowered.

"It's my business, you just don't know it." The dark pink and gray jet smiled villainously. "I have known you long enough to suspect something is going on, Blitzy. Did you forget we grew up together?"

"Zhere is nozhing going on!" Icy's normal optic gleamed angrily.

Starscream walked further into the room. Blitzwing took a few steps back as long as the other advanced. The door shut, cutting them off from their other fellow Decepticons.

"If zhere vas anyzhing going on, jou'd be ze first to know anyvay," the blue face remarked hatefully. "Jou alvays picked up on zhings so quickly."

"I'm only concerned," the devious seeker said. "I didn't want Megatron to decapitate you so I walked a little more quickly than usual to inform you of his rising anger. So, there's nothing you need to tell me? I'm here to listen to you."

"Shut up, don't start zat, Starscream. I have nozhing to tell jou, so leave me be." Blitzwing wanted to pummel him for ruining his light mood and for reminding him of their once happy past. He almost felt as if he was being insulted. "Jou don't care. If jou really cared, jou vouldn't have stepped all over me and connived jour vay up to power. But no, jou absolutely had to prove jourself to be ze best. Jou had to be Megatron's lapdog."

"Don't let that warp your memories of the past, Blitzwing. You and I both know why I had fought to prove my worth. We were both young bots who had joined the Decepticon ranks for adventure and excitement…" His peaceful façade shattered. It was Starscream's turn to wear the dour look. "We both learned it was kill or be killed when it came to being the best. I believed I was worth more than being a simple drone. So I did what I could to claw my way up to dominance…"

"Jou're still not satisfied vith being ze second-in-command. Maybe jou crave power so much because it stems back to vhen jou vere a youngling. Jou acted like a spoiled prince zhen and jou still act zat vay now."

"Uh-uh-uh…" Starscream wagged a clawed finger. "Don't twist the truth. I wasn't so spoiled in the beginning. If I remember correctly, I was quite innocent, protective and trustworthy. I don't know if you have forgotten it or not but I had practically raised you, Blitzwing."

"I'm avare, Starscream. Jou just turned into a stranger after ve joined ze Decepticon ranks."

Starscream placed a servo on Blitzwing's shoulder. He smiled softly at the triple changer.

"For the best, little brother," he said. "I changed for the best."


	18. Benign Light

**Thanks for the reviews/alerts/faves people :) Ooookay so I have absolutely no idea whether or not people liked the idea that I made Starscream and Blitzwing brothers for this fic... *crickets* I'm going to assume no one cared lol. There also might be some canon character OOCness but I'm not certain for sure if that is the case... Anyway, here's the next chapter, enjoy!**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 18 Benign Light

(January 21st – 3:30pm)

"Do not, under any circumstances, ruin this car," Cynthia instructed. She motioned to the silver car that was sitting in the parking spot that her old car used to occupy. "I had to go through Hell to explain how our old one got destroyed."

"Didn't you tell them Blitzwing ate it?" Darien said.

"Yes, I did…" Cyndi snorted. "The receptionist laughed at me when she overheard it. No one believed me and I almost didn't get the car. This little rental is what we'll be dealing with until I can scrape up enough money to buy a new one."

"This is Blitzwing's friggin fault!" Amanda pouted.

"Yeah, I'm still a little miffed at him about that but I'm not making any effort to salvage the car, that's for sure. Live with it. Hopefully, you'll appreciate this car and do your best to prevent it from not getting smashed. Since this is a rental car, you better take that into serious consideration." She folded her arms across her chest, wearing a smirk. "Consider it as a test of responsibility for you two."

"I'm a better driver than Mandy," Darien asserted. "I don't blow red lights or ignore the yield signs."

"Yeah, I may be a little reckless," Amanda reluctantly admitted, "but at least I don't blast music loud enough to shatter kidney stones. The bass is turned up to such a high level, I swear I can feel my very cells vibrate!"

"You turn up '_Heavy Metal Lover_' by when you're going downtown…"

"Oh please. You're just as guilty says the boy who plays '_Imma Be_' every single time he stops at a red light whenever there're a car full of chicks next to him."

"If you don't stop, neither of you will get to drive the car," their sister threatened. "It'll be mine and you two can take the bus to and fro."

"Buses are scary," Mandy shuddered. "They smell like stale pee and hobos."

"You're such a baby," Darien sighed, giving up. He turned to his eldest sibling. "Cyndi, can I go for a spin with it?"

"Not without me! I'm going with you!"

"Fine, you can both go," Cyndi rolled her eyes. "Everyone's getting into a rut with this miserable cold winter weather. But you better be back before it gets too dark alright? I don't want you driving around on those slick roads when it's pitch black outside. That's what happened to me."

"We'll be okay, Big Sis," Darien promised. "I'm driving though."

"I don't have a problem with that," Amanda said, crossing her arms across her chest. "Since you're such a phenomenal driver, you might as well drive. Come on, impress me."

"Fine, maybe I will, Jezebel."

Amanda growled deeply within her throat at the name he called her. Cynthia had called her that over a week ago when their little fight ensued.

"Here're the keys," Cynthia announced, dangling them. "Take them, learn to drive the car and then come back before it gets too late. It is a school night, you know."

(twenty five miles outside of Detroit – 5:15pm)

"You idiot, watch out for the black ice!" Mandy chided.

"Shut up, I'm the driver," Darien bit back. "Sit down in the seat and hush."

The teenager slowed down to avoid skidding across the deadly obstacle. Once he had passed it up, he accelerated again.

"Darien, you know me long enough to know I can't shut up for too long," the girl grinned wryly. "Let's just talk then."

Darien rolled his green eyes. There were times when he borderline hated and wanted to pummel Amanda. He never raised his hand to her although he was almost prompted to on several occasions.

"Fine, we'll talk," he exhaled. "What do you want to talk about?"

"You know damn well what I want to talk about," was her answer.

"If it involves two people, drop it. If the one person's name happens to be Cynthia and the other person's name is Blitzwing, can it."

"But why? It's all the rage in my world! I'm obsessed with it!"

"I don't understand you, why are you obsessed with it?"

"The true question is, why aren't you obsessed, Darien?"

"I choose not to think about it. When Cynthia heads out at sunset and she doesn't come back until eleven in the evening, I have a pretty good idea of where she's been. She comes back home in one piece and happy. That's all I care about."

"Does the reality that our sister is seeing Blitzwing not intriguing enough?" She smacked him lightly upside his head. "Hello? Humans in love with Decepticons? Big friggin robot falls in love with young woman? It's unbelievable! Okay, I admit I lied when I told her I didn't want to be a part of her life anymore… I need to know what goes on between them! Come on, you have to admit it's really cool in a certain way!"

"It's really funny because you were so upset about it earlier, you know that? What is wrong with you?"

"Look who's talking! You act like it's nothing! You act like she's dating some normal dude!"

"I'm not making a big deal out of it, that's all. Unlike you, I'm calm. Yes, I am aware of what she's dealing with but I believe she can take care of herself. I especially don't want to say this but I can see he does care for her." He shot Amanda a critical stare. "He came into the apartment to keep Cyndi safe from you which is really ironic because you wanted to punch her lights out!" He huffed harshly. "Oh, no wait, you almost did. She dodged!"

"It's done and over with, it's water under the bridge now…"

"I know it's really wrong for me to admit this but I somewhat trust him to look after her… I'm terrified of the dude though."

"We need to go spy on them!" Amanda smiled. "I wanna see it all! Since she told us she and Blitzwing were in love, she's gone out like four times after sunset. I haven't really asked her anything…"

"I don't care what happens just as long as she comes back alive."

Darien pulled over onto the shoulder of the road. A guard rail shielded them from a cliff that plummeted seven hundred feet down into a snowy valley. He put the emergency brake on to make sure it wouldn't end up rolling away on its own accord due to the slick conditions. Then, with a twist of his wrist, he turned the car off. He left the keys in the ignition.

"I still don't get it," he sighed, rubbing his eyes. "If she had a thing for an Autobot, I'd still be a little freaked out by it but it'd be easier for me to accept." Darien was becoming flustered. "I never will understand it."

"I won't either," Mandy spoke solemnly, acknowledging the conversation she and her brother were engaged in was a dire matter. "I'm worried about her but she says he'll protect her."

"After you went to bed that night, he told me he doesn't consider us targets. He said he wouldn't hurt us because we're Cyndi's brother and sister. So what, we have immunity or something now?"

"I just hope he will keep his promise and not kill us or her. Decepticons are Decepticons, right? What if he's only pretending to be in love with Cyndi and this is some great big messed up game?"

"If that's the case, we better be ready to fight back. We have to be very careful. We may even have to go against Cyndi's wishes and tell the Autobots about everything if she ends up being played by Blitzwing. But for now, I guess all we can really do is nothing."

"Well, that's what you'll be doing. I'm gonna spy and figure out what's going on!" She looked out the windshield, seeing a car coming down the road. "Ooh, look at that!" Mandy narrowed her eyes to get a better look at it. "Ugh, it's ugly as Hell!"

Darien caught sight of the car making its way down the road, coming towards them. It was a muscle car that was colored green and black. The vehicle was studded with spikes on the cabin's roof. Its windshield was tinted red and neither of the siblings could see into it so they could get a look at the driver. As it came closer the headlights came on, shining into the rental car. The headlights were colored red just like the windshield. However, the lights seemed to be a vivid ruby color that both siblings had recognized.

Amanda felt anxiety churn within her bowels and she made an immediate assumption when the car's headlights turned on. She gripped Darien's hand roughly.

"Darien, have your phone ready, I have a bad feeling about something," she almost whispered to him.

"Oh, don't start," he shook his head. "Don't make me start thinking stupid things."

"Do you see the headlights?"

"Yes, but I'm not gonna think…"

The car abruptly switched lanes, disregarding whether there was anyone in it or not. Then it swerved over onto the shoulder where Amanda and Darien were parked. If the windshield wasn't so tinted, they'd be looking right into the eyes of the driver. The siblings were frozen with fear.

"Lock the doors," Mandy commanded. "When he comes out of the car, don't roll down the windows. If he has a gun…"

"Shush up," he hissed. His right hand rested on the key, ready to activate the ignition. "Hopefully, he's just asking for directions. If he turns out to be one of those things, we'll be out of here in no time."

"Turn the ignition on, I'm getting scared."

"Fine, fine…"

He turned the key. The car rumbled to life. However, the engine died down a few seconds later.

"What the …" Mandy's eyes grew. "What is going on?"

Darien began to panic as she did. He tried the ignition again. There seemed to be no life in the vehicle. He slammed his hand up against the dashboard.

"What the Hell is going on?" Darien said, his voice rising. "This thing is completely dead!"

"'Dead'?" the blonde repeated. "What do you mean by 'dead'?"

"It doesn't want to start, that's what it means!"

"How'd it happen? It started up and then it just died!" Quickly, she looked back at the muscle car. "Darien, it's evil! I know it's a Decepticon in disguise!"

"No, it's not! Don't say that! You're paranoid!"

"Call Cyndi now so she can get Blitzwing to save us!"

The headlights on the muscle car shut off. The boy and girl gasped in unison. Amanda held her brother's arm in a death grip.

"Whatever you do, don't lose your cool," Darien whispered.

"Forget losing my cool!" she replied. "I don't want to lose my life! If that car starts coming to life, I'm outta here!"

No sooner after she spoke that sentence, they could hear metal and gears creaking and groaning which originated from the muscle car. Their eyes shifted to the mystery vehicle and refused to look away from it.

"If this does turn out to be a 'Con, then you can kill me again when we die," he said. "I know it doesn't make any sense but you catch my drift…"

"If we get out of this alive, you will pay dearly," she said spitefully.

A second later, they truly realized their company was no man inside his car. Rather, the car itself wasn't really a car.

Before their widened eyes, the car began to morph into an anthropomorphic figure. The way the machine did it was as if it didn't have a care in the world. The way in which the metal entity contorted its body to stand up right boggled the helpless organics' minds as it activated its robot mode.

The siblings wrapped their arms around each other, consumed by deep terror. They shook violently like ill structured buildings in an earthquake. Darien broke into a cold sweat and Amanda was ready to unleash a wail of fright.

About five seconds of watching the muscle car metamorphose, they beheld an intimidating Cybertronian. Both could observe its ruby colored optics which practically screamed Decepticon to them.

"Boy, do I hate it when you're right," Darien quivered.

"What the Hell are you doing, try to start it up!" Amanda made no effort to try to make their escape subtle. "We're gonna die if it doesn't start up!"

A hooked servo that the mismatched bot wielded rested on the hood of the rental car. The inorganic creature knelt down, looking directly at the young Humans within. His white faceplate wore a look of sick amusement upon seeing their fear.

Mandy screamed shrilly and Darien had to place his hands over his ears. The boy felt like he was going to wet himself and he fought back with all his might to do so.

"How nice," Lockdown said smoothly. "What a way to break up my boring scenic drive: terrorizing young organics."

"HE'S GONNA KILL US!" Mandy shook her brother. "FLOOR IT!"

"Ain't gonna work, Blondie. I disabled your vehicle from starting up at all. Don't worry, it's only temporary."

"Buddy, look," Darien stammered, "we were just hanging out here minding our own business. We don't want any trouble, please!"

"Naw, I'm not keen on killing organics." He snorted. "There's no merit in it. You're far too easy prey. Instead, I only like to alert you of my presence and giving you a good scare."

"Go away, you big ugly robot!" Amanda lashed out. "You can't just walk up to people and act like a jerk by scaring the living Hell out of them!"

Lockdown narrowed his optics at Amanda. With her normal servo, he extended a finger on it and placed it on the windshield. She recoiled.

"I expected the boy to be the defensive one, not you," he said. "You have guts when you're cornered… I respect that."

"Mandy, don't egg this guy on," Darien tried to dissuade her. "That hook's gonna fly through the windshield and slit our throats!"

Amanda was not deterred. There was no way this 'Con was going to ruin her day. For a moment, she was surprised how quickly her fear evolved into defensive fury but she set aside this amazement. She was going to teach this fellow a lesson and make sure he never bothered another Earthling again.

"Hey, Decepticreep!" she barked.

"I'm no Decepticon but that doesn't mean I don't work closely with them," the bounty hunter retorted. He motioned to the blank icon on his chest where once upon a time, there was a symbol that had once defined him. "I have no real alliance. If there is one, it's to myself."

"Well, you have red eyes and you're a creep so you're close enough to be one! I ought to tell on you for this outrage!"

"Oh-ho, so bold! Are you aware of exactly what you're up against?" He grinned. "Maybe I ought to give you a friendly reminder? I heard blonde organics are a little slower than others when it comes down to terms of processor power."

She was starting to fume now. Her blood felt like flaming gasoline as it pulsated through her veins. Her teeth clenched and the grip she maintained on her brother strengthened exponentially.

"Mandy, shut up while you're ahead," Darien advised. "We'll be dead if you don't shut your big fat mouth up!"

Amanda laughed haughtily. She smiled a toothy smile.

"He can't hurt us because we have connections," she said to both Lockdown and her brother. "If anyone is going to be afraid, it's you, Captain Hook!"

"You're sorely mistaken," Lockdown said with malice in his rugged voice. "Frankly, I think you lost it."

"Oh, Hell no! My brother and I have immunity..!"

Darien's hand went over his sister's mouth. She yelped in shock and tried to flail free.

"Do you have a brain?" Darien demanded harshly. "Shut up, Mandy!"

"Pray tell me who this immunity is," the daunting robot pressed. "Do you kiddies have a daddy who's a general in your pathetic army? Is that your secret weapon? If that's the case, I'm seriously not impressed."

"Oh, no, she's just crazy!" the sixteen year old lied. "She's bluffing!" Then he lowered his voice and spoke to his sister. "Don't screw it all up! Remember that we promised Cyndi we wouldn't tell anyone about her and Blitzwing!"

Obviously, he had misjudged the power of the bounty hunter's audio receptors. If he had a nose, Lockdown would've wrinkled it. He could've sworn he remembered hearing the name before. However, he just couldn't quite remember when and where the name first occurred to him.

Amanda punched her brother in his mouth, making him yelp in pain. He released her and put his hands up to his mouth. His fingertips felt around it, checking to see if all his teeth were intact.

"This'll save us," she told him shortly. "You'll be thanking me." She shifted her attention to Lockdown. "Yeah, my immunity is in the form of another robot just like you! He's bigger, faster, stronger and smarter than you, you rusty bucket of bolts! He's a Decepticon!" She wished she was a mystical witch of some sort who could summon the triple changer instantly just by saying his name. "His name is Blitzwing! If you don't beat it, I can have him hunt you down and eat you! He'll do it because he ate my sister's car!"

All Lockdown could do was stare back at her, absorbing her words and letting them soak in. He wondered if she really was bluffing as Darien tried to convince him. But now that she mentioned Blitzwing and with the name Cyndi floating around in his helm, he made a conclusion…

"You know Blitzwing's pet?" he asked.

"Cyndi's my sister," Mandy said snottily. "Oh, and she's not his pet. They're in love with each other."

"You stupid bitch!" Darien cursed, enraged over what she had done. He tried to not swear but there was no way he could hold back his true feelings at this point. "How could you do this? You are so unbelievably selfish and unreliable!"

"Piss off, retard!" she yelled in his face. "I just saved ourselves!" Once more, after chiding Darien, she faced Lockdown. "Yup, that's right. So, you can't lay a finger on us, tough guy!" She felt so victorious and accomplished. "What're you going to do now?"

"Are you that idiotic? Now that you told this guy, Blitzwing and Cyndi will kill you for this!"

"Oh, please. Cyndi won't kill me. What's the worst Blitzwing can do to me? Sit on me?"

"Yes! And then you die!"

"What a claim!" Lockdown proclaimed mockingly. "I ought to be shaking down to my circuitry." He laughed shortly. "I'm not scared of him. He's a great big joke within the Decepticon ranks."

"Uh, the guy actually frightens me because he's crazy," Darien laughed oddly. "Say, are you a friend of his? You can keep a secret, right? My dim witted sister can't keep her mouth shut!"

Lockdown smirked villainously at them.

"Of course I can," he said. Neither of the siblings could decipher his true intentions though. "I just want to see if this is a bluff or not. I hope you can understand."

"This isn't a lie!" Amanda slammed her hand on the dashboard. "Why would I come up with this? You even somehow know my sister…"

"It's just a simple test really. All I want to do is call him in to see if he does know you. I just want to warn you now that I don't take kindly to liars and manipulators. If I find out this is a farce in order to throw me off…" His smirk grew. "Let's just say for your sake, you can run faster than your vehicle can move."

(…)

"Hey, Blitzwing."

Blitzwing jumped when he heard Lockdown's voice in his comm. Unfortunately, Hothead was in control when the bounty hunter contacted him so suddenly.

"Slaggit, Lockdown, how did jou get my comm code?" he vented.

"I have my ways, don't you worry," the other line said shortly. "Trust me, how I got the code should be the least of your curiosity."

"Vhat do jou vant?"

"Hmm, well how can I say this exactly?"

"Spit it out!"

"I have come across two organics. I'm with them right now."

"And zis affects me how?" Icy asked. "Are jou zat bored zat jou decided to contact me vhile jou torture helpless organics? Zat's pazhetic."

"That's not half the story. They told me they know you."

Blitzwing's curiosity was piqued. He was glad that he was alone in the sanctity of his quarters when Lockdown had contacted him. Warily, he looked out of the corner of his optic: he never could be too safe.

"Zhey know me?" he resumed. "How? I only know…" Immediately, he assumed something. "Are any of zem female? And jou better tell me now."

"Yes," the bounty hunter replied, relishing the rising seriousness he could hear in Blitzwing's voice. "There is a girl here. There's a boy here too with her."

"Describe ze girl." His servos clenched. "Jou especially better not lie about zat."

"Hey, take it easy, will ya? It's not your little pet."

"She's not my pet!" Hothead argued. "Drop it! Zhen vhy do jou zhink I vould care about two organics if it isn't Cynzhia?"

"Aww, isn't that sweet?"

"Do jou vant me to hunt jou down and break jour legs?"

"Blitzwing, save us!" Amanda screamed in the background. "It's me, Amanda! I'm Cynthia's sister! Please, you gotta get me away from this creep! Come on, you know me!"

He was truly shocked when he heard her voice. He couldn't forget her screaming. There were questions to be answered: and he wanted them answered now.

"And ze male?" Icy said.

"Kid's name is Darien," Lockdown revealed.

Of course. Blitzwing cursed within his helm, disbelieving how everything was unfolding before him. He sat down on his berth, silently pondering over the scenario.

"The girl said that Cyndi is her sister," the green and black bot stated. "She further told me you and your pet, are actually lovers… Is that true?"

Blitzwing couldn't say anything. Overwhelming shock consumed him and he could barely speak or react to what was going on. Feverishly, he tried to think up of some sort of lie to convince Lockdown that wasn't the case.

"I don't honestly care if that is the case," Lockdown added. "Do you think I would give a care about you in love with an organic? Just come meet me and see these two fleshlings for yourself. I'll give you directions once you take to the skies, alright?"

(…)

Darien bit his nails, fearfully yet eagerly anticipating Blitzwing's inevitable arrival. He couldn't hear the Decepticon on the other end of Lockdown's comm but he was more than certain that he really was coming. He had to arrive: if not, he and Mandy would be at the mercy of this crafty bounty hunting robot.

"If he doesn't recognize us and if Lockdown kills us," Amanda fumed, "I'm going to come back and haunt Blitzwing!"

"I don't think these guys are afraid of ghosts," her brother said. "I find that highly unlikely."

"Oh please," Lockdown jumped in. "Spooks? They're not real. That's a bunch of nonsense."

"I'll haunt you too!" the blonde said. "I'll prove you wrong!"

"That's not very nice. Being pestered by someone annoying who's already dead is a fate worse than being off-lined."

"I'm going to make sure I do that then and not go to the light right away."

"I'm curious as to know how you two know about the little fling."

"We want to know the same thing, buddy," Darien made sure the tone of his voice wasn't aggressive. "How do you know about them? Cyndi never did mention us to you. Then again, she probably did meet you but she never bothered to tell Mandy and I…"

"I was minding my business actually. I came across them at a place you organics frequent which is called a night club. He wouldn't leave her alone and he threatened me to leave or he'd tear my faceplate off."

"Serves you right," Mandy hissed. "You know, I think I like him more than you and that's not by much."

"I'm sure that in this event, Blitzwing will be your best friend, won't he?" He paused for a moment and then resumed. "Don't try to convince me otherwise, Blondie. You'll kiss up to him as much as you can to make sure you get back safe and sound to your sister, eh?"

Darien looked over Amanda, knowing this very well was the case. The girl's eyes were focused on the floor, looking emotionlessly at her shoes. She refused to lock gazes with the Cybertronian or say anything back because she knew it was true.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Lockdown went on. "Whatever works for you is the way to go."

"Shut up, you don't know me!" she replied at last. "What are you, some kind of demented psychologist?"

"Messing with people's processors is just as fun as bounty hunting."

"I hope all you Decepticons rot!"

"So much for Blitzwing being your friend. Judging from your plea earlier, I assumed you were on friendly terms."

"Mandy, you need to shut up before you make things even worse," Darien warned. "I promise I'll knock your lights out otherwise."

Grudgingly, the young woman silenced herself. She stewed within herself, glowering at the mech before her.

All three of them could then hear a faint rumble in the sky above them. The siblings stuck their heads out their rolled down windows, looking upwards to find their peculiar savior. Lockdown only smirked and folded his arms across his chest.

"Looks like you might get off the hook," he informed the two.

They watched as a purple and tan jet alighted to the ground. Blitzwing transformed to his robot mode, landing on the road's shoulder with a thud that created a tremor, shaking the car.

Amanda felt her pulse accelerate. Earlier, she didn't stop to think of the consequences of revealing to anyone of her sister's dark secret. Now, she felt shameful of manipulating Blitzwing by having him show up to stick up for her and Darien. She didn't care so much about using him but the shame came about of telling someone of Cynthia's romance. The reality she betrayed her bugged her. Then she justified her actions by reminding herself she and Darien would've died otherwise by Lockdown's hand.

Darien opened up his car door and exited the vehicle. He was ecstatic to see the triple changer (never in a million years did he think he'd be happy to see him). The boy wore a huge smile on his face.

"Oh my God, I am so happy to see you!" he rejoiced. "Blitz, what's shakin'?"

Hothead shot him a hard gaze. Darien immediately shut his mouth, careful to not push this volatile mech.

"So you know these pipsqueaks?" Lockdown said, motioning to the Humans.

"I do," Blitzwing confirmed. He caught sight of Amanda who still sat in the passenger's seat. "I know zem."

"Alright, that's all I wanted to know."

Blitzwing then roughly shoved the bounty hunter, knocking him off his stabilizing servos. Lockdown collapsed onto the ground, completely caught off guard. The larger bot placed his boot-like metal foot on Lockdown's chest, pinning him to the ground, rendering him helpless. The least most physically powerful squirmed about, trying to free himself. When the triple changer dug his foot deeper into his chest, threatening to crush his spark chamber, Lockdown stopped his escape.

"I mean it vhen I say don't say a zhing," Hothead muttered grimly. "If I find out jou lied to me, I vill personally hunt jou down and make jou vish jou vere never sparked."

"I think I got it," Lockdown retorted bitterly. "Get your stabilizing servo off me, you defect. I won't come near the two brats too, alright? I know they're Cyndi's brother and sister and I know Cyndi is your femme. I won't tell anyone. I don't even fragging care!"

"Okay, I just vanted to hear it!" Random said happily. "Don't break jour promise and ve'll all get along!"

In contrast to Hothead who knocked him down, Random removed his foot. Then, Blitzwing helped Lockdown up as if they were friends. The green and black bot brushed himself off.

"Alright, I'm out," the muscle car stated. "Seeya around, Three Face." His ruby optics glanced over at Darien and Amanda, acknowledging them. "Have a nice life, kiddies." He shot a smirk at the girl. "Good luck, Blondie."

He morphed into his vehicle mode, speeding away from the scene. The roar of the engine and the screech of his tires echoed through the air as he ran off. The echo persisted for nearly a minute before it died down all together.

Now, it was just the three of them.

"Thank you so much!" Darien laughed. "You ain't so bad after all, Blitz. Man, I owe you big time."

Blitzwing was irked he had to fly in and stick up for Amanda and Darien. However, he understood their situation: what could they do against Lockdown? So he assumed it was only natural (and possibly their only resource) for them to summon him. He only came to cover for them for the sole fact that they were his love's family. If they were some other organics he had never even met before, he couldn't give a care at all.

"Jou're velcome," Icy said solemnly. He almost sounded like he didn't want the thanks. "Jou owe me nozhing."

"I do owe you!" Darien asserted. "You could've said you didn't know us. Then, we'd be royally screwed. You're alright in my book, Blitz."

"Zat's getting a bit annoying. Call me by my real name."

"No problem!" Darien was just happy Lockdown was gone. "Blitzwing, you're my hero!"

"As long as jou don't say jou love me, I don't care," Hothead said. "Just stay out of trouble next time, pipsqueak."

Still, Amanda refused to participate in everything transpiring around her. She pretended he wasn't there.

"Vhy so serious?" Random asked, noticing her once more in the car.

He knelt down, peering into the windshield. Gently, he placed a fingertip on the hood. Despite his tenderness, the car shifted and startled her.

"Now zat I have jour attention…" he said.

"I vant to know how jou got Lockdown to contact me to come save jour skin," Icy finished. "I could hear jou scream for me. Now zat I'm here, jou von't even acknowledge my presence."

All three of his personas disliked her. Even the gregarious and optimistic Random wasn't too fond of her. If Amanda wasn't Cynthia's sister, he would've swatted her away as if she was a petty fly. Since he couldn't crush her, he decided he'd do the next best thing: quietly tolerate her to the best of his abilities.

"Look, I told the creep we knew you because you knew Cyndi," she said, her face red with shame. "That's the only way I could save myself and Darien from the robot. I couldn't keep it a secret from him really…"

"Vell, ze consequence isn't so heavy for jou because zat lowly scum saw jour sister and I at a club earlier zhis month," he said. "However, I must remind jou both to still remain tight lipped."

"No problem," Darien jumped in.

"Darien, get in the car, we have to go home," Amanda said abruptly. "Cyndi will start wondering."

He obeyed her command despite his tension towards her. Darien started the car and this time, the engine roared to life without hesitation. Both organics breathed a sigh of relief, thankful they could finally get back on the road.

"Thanks again, Blitzwing," Darien said. "I appreciate it."

"Jou're velcome!" Random said cheerfully. "Don't run into Lockdown again! Tell Cynzhia I said 'hi'!"

"Jou may tell her everyzhing," Icy added. "Eizher zhat or I vill, it really doesn't have much a consequence for me."

"Uh, I'll let you tell her," the boy laughed nervously. "She'll freak out if we tell her."

On the other hand, Blitzwing didn't really mind the youngest of the three siblings. Sure, he had the tendency to be annoying with the nicknames he bestowed onto him but he had no real issues with Darien. The boy was polite and despite the fact he could be a little outrageous, he was calm. He was much more pleasant than Amanda in his optics.

"Don't get into any more trouble because if zat's ze case, I von't come rescue jou," said Hothead. "I can't fly out all ze time like zis."

"I'm going straight home," Darien replied. "Well, seeya."

"Farevell, Amanda." He made sure he sounded particularly mean and unfriendly. "Jou're velcome."


	19. Hallowed

**Hey guys, thanks for the reviews! I'm glad that people like this story more than LIAL because I've been aiming it to be better (that's why I'm doing this rewrite to begin with). So, thanks for the honesty :) This chapter is a bit fluffy but what romance isn't fluffy in some way? I promise you this chapter will not disappoint you. Enjoy!**

Transcendental Mysteries

Chapter 19 Hallowed

(February 2nd, Decepticon base – 7:10pm)

A pair of ruby optics scanned the surroundings carefully, on the lookout for anything that hid in the dark lair. The room was dark, cold and seemingly empty. The only other sign of life was in the form of a short, stocky man who was lying asleep on his modest cot within a grid. A wall of cylindrical glass separated him from the 'Cons on the outside, imprisoning him. The man was lost in his dreams and he didn't stir at all.

Blitzwing retreated from behind the cover of a large boulder, seeing that all was calm in the large room. There wasn't another soul to be seen. Everything seemed downhill from here. Now all he had to do was sneak up through the main corridor which served as the entrance and exit to the subterranean Decepticon domain.

"I zhink he's in recharge," Random whispered. "Ze professor is a very deep recharger!"

"Yes, but jou vill find a vay to vake him up I'm sure…" Hothead said.

"I vill tip toe and be on my vay!"

The triple changer looked back over his shoulder, being especially careful since the captive robotics genius was fast asleep. Sumdac was still lost in his slumber. There were no witnesses to see him disappear once more into the outside world to meet with his beloved.

Despite his great size, Blitzwing moved soundlessly out of the room and entered the long and craggy hallway that led to the mouth of the cave. Ahead of himself, he could see neither of his two compatriots or his lord. This was exactly what he wanted to see.

Anymore, he felt some slight paranoia in him every single time he flew out to reunite with Cynthia. He didn't doubt the other three resident 'Cons had some suspicions regarding him going off at random intervals after nightfall and then returning empty handed several hours later. Blitzwing certainly knew his crafty brother was curious of his latest mannerisms. Although he told him there was nothing interesting to note, he didn't doubt Starscream wouldn't believe him. Neither did he doubt that the seeker would try to pry in on his shadowy dealings.

About two or three minutes later, Blitzwing was at the entrance of the abandoned mine. No star or moonlight greeted him. Rather, big snowflakes fell from the darkened sky which was coated thickly with clouds. All was so peaceful and silent, he could hear the snow fall on the earth.

"Vhat a beautiful evening!" the jack-o-lantern face said in a complimentary tone. "It's perfect!"

He stuck his glossa out of his mouth, wanting to catch some snowflakes on his metal tongue. Blitzwing giggled as the frozen water rested on his glossa and melted after remaining there for a few seconds. Then he pulled it back into his mouth.

"Okay, enough playing around," Hothead said impatiently. "I don't vant to keep…"

"Ah, Blitzwing. Good to have you join me out here."

For split second, he thought his spark had ceased to pulsate within his chest. The unexpected, deep and masculine voice came from behind him. Blitzwing didn't want to turn around to face the voice's owner but he knew it would be a serious offense if he didn't turn around and face him.

Hothead swapped with Icy, allowing the level-headed personality to handle this situation.

"Lord Megatron," he addressed gracefully, trying to maintain his composure. He turned around to face his leader. "Sir, I vas not expecting zhis."

The first thing he saw when he caught sight of Megatron were his evil and haunting optics. They stood out amongst the darkness like ghastly will-o-wisps. When Blitzwing's optics adapted to the lowly lit conditions, he could finally make out his shape and the silver tinge of his armor.

"I figured that I ought to retreat from the staleness that that cave wreaks of," Megatron explained, approaching his underling. "I can understand why you flee from this place at times." He smirked. "Is that the reason why you're out here now?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. Zat and I also intend to try to find some more Allspark fragments."

"Very good. I am glad to see that you are doing such a thing even though I personally have not asked you to do so lately."

"I also confess I have a curiosity for zis little planet."

"What do you think about the fleshlings?"

He knew he had to speak very carefully about this matter. Blitzwing prayed with all his might the other two personalities wouldn't reveal any confidential thoughts.

"Overall, zhey are a veak and inferior race in comparison to ours," he said. "However, I do believe zhere are some, like Professor Sumdac, who can be helpful and meritorious."

"I must agree with you on that," Megatron nodded. "However, I certainly have no issue wiping them out from existence once they have fully exhausted the extent of their usefulness."

"Megatron," Random conveniently overthrew Icy, "vhat do jou zhink about an organic who can be kept as a pet?"

Megatron gave him a very quizzical look. He certainly wasn't expecting a question like that at all. Then again, there was a reason why this particular face was named Random to begin with. The head 'Con ignored his words all together, having learned to disregard his wild ramblings.

"Yes, that'd just be splendid, wouldn't it?" he muttered. "I won't keep you any longer, Blitzwing. Look long and hard for those fragments."

"Jou needn't vorry, my lord!" Blitzwing saluted him. "I can do zat for jou! I vill return soon!"

Turning into a jet, Blitzwing ascended into the sky to begin his fake quest to look for wayward Allspark shards. Unbeknownst to his overlord, he had set out to see his organic sweetheart who was faithfully and patiently waiting for him.

Megatron brushed an accumulating layer of snow off his shoulders without taking his optics off his soldier. His gaze hardened a little as he slowly disappeared from his field of vision.

"Does he not strike you as odd even more so than usual, my liege?" A smooth voice sounded from the shadows. "Do you see it?"

Starscream approached Megatron. The two elite Decepticons stood side by side.

"I do agree with you, Starscream," he confided. "However, I need more evidence that will point to the fact that something amiss is going on behind my back."

"I mean, he never was predictable since he had been reconstructed as a triple changer," said Starscream, "but I can almost sense there's something more than meets the optic. I am glad to see that you agree with me, Megatron. Shall I follow him to see what exactly he is up to?"

"No. We must have patience. We will continue to monitor his behaviorisms and then we will decide how to act from there. I do not detect any treasonous leanings in Blitzwing. I just can't see it to be honest. He has been a loyal follower of mine." His optics focused hatefully on the second in command. "Unlike you, Starscream. You better not be trying to lead me astray by making me believe one of my men is acting even more unusual than he is accustomed to. If this is a farce, I will catch onto it."

"I am honest in my convictions, Megatron. Besides, isn't it always good to test the loyalties of your minions who appear to be so devoted?"

"I will decide that, not you."

(forty miles outside of Detroit – 7:30pm)

Looking at the fat snowflakes falling lazily to the earth made her sleepy. Cynthia was curled up in the driver's seat, her eyes heavy. She was wearing her yellow ski jacket with her arms pulled into the coat to keep herself warm. The car was turned off, preferring to not burn gas for the ride home. If she had exhaled through her mouth, she could see her breath even within the car (although it was rapidly losing its heat).

Cyndi couldn't even look through her windshield since it was covered in a layer of snow although she had shut her car off ten minutes earlier. It was an obstacle to get to this rural area which was located some way out of Detroit with this heavy snow. However, she was willing to take a risk in order to meet up with Blitzwing.

Last night, he contacted her to inform her he found a very nice location for them to meet up so they could spend some time together. He described it as an abandoned farm forty miles outside of Detroit. There was a dirt road that led into the woods where an old barn was sitting emptily. Cynthia was surprised she even found the place to begin with. Now all she had to do was wait for him.

She was out in the middle of nowhere and she did have slight anxieties regarding what could possibly be lurking in this isolated area. Because her windows were covered with snow, she couldn't see what was really lurking just outside of her car. For all she knew, there could be a family of cannibals lingering in the woods that had so conveniently taken residence in the barn Blitzwing mentioned to her. Cynthia found it unlikely that was the case but with her luck, she wouldn't be surprised if something like that did turn out to be a reality. Then she reminded herself the mech would keep her safe from any harm. If he had saved her own siblings from Lockdown, then she was certain he'd shield her from degenerates living in the wilderness.

Cynthia decided to get out of her car. She opened up the door and placed a foot down into the rapidly deepening snow. With effort, she closed the door which shook some snow off the window.

"I'm going to be stranded with him here if this snow keeps up," she whispered.

The woman looked further down the dirt road. Tall elm trees lined up along the road on both sides. On the left side, there was a barbwire fence with a few rotting wooden posts that were barely standing up. Further up the road, she could see more and more woodlands. Somewhere up around there, was the barn.

"Jou know, jou look so beautiful vith ze snowflakes in jour hair."

Earlier, she would've screamed and ran off into the woods to escape. Now, all she did was gasp in surprise. Cynthia turned around, seeing Blitzwing who was standing only a few feet away from her.

His helm was tilted downwards, looking directly back at her. He knelt down, getting a closer look at her. There was a peaceful smile on the black and red face.

Cynthia smiled at him, knowing it was impossible to not grin back at him. She approached him.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes," he answered, "I zhink jou're a very pretty organic. I don't care vhat anyone else zhinks."

"Thanks." She laughed softly. "I must say you have to be the most handsome alien I've ever met myself. Don't you forget that either."

As if she was a flower made of the most delicate glass, Blitzwing rested a finger tip beneath her chin. She sighed contently and wrapped her arms around his finger, embracing it.

"I missed you even though I only saw you two days ago," Cynthia said, still holding onto him.

"I alvays miss jou vhen jou're not vith me, Cynzhia," Random remarked. "I vill alvays try to see jou vhenever I can!"

"Well, I'm right here."

His fingers gently came around her, holding her in a protective hold. He lifted her up to his face where he then cupped his servos together. Cyndi sat in his metal hands, feeling no fear. His face came closer to hers and he kissed her.

"Don't be greedy!" Hothead pushed the maniac out of the way.

Giggling, she kissed him as well.

"Ze best vas saved for last," Icy said smugly.

Like the other two, he got his kiss.

"Nice place," she commented, sweeping her hand around and motioning to the whole landscape around them. "You have the right idea in mind when you try to think of new meeting places. It's a little far from my place but I'm not complaining."

"Like I said last night, I came across it vhile I vanted to escape ze lair's boring atmosphere," he explained. "I figured it vould be a nice place for us to be alone togezher and I contacted jou about it."

"Did you really check to see if this farm is abandoned?"

"Ze barn is dilapidated but sturdy enough. I took a peek inside it and it's quite empty. Ze farmhouse itself has its vindows and door boarded up. If anyone vas living here, it vas obviously a few decades ago."

"I just don't want to give Farmer Jim a heart attack."

"Ze only zhings zat vill be frightened are ze rodents."

"I don't like mice or rats…"

"Coward," Hothead smirked.

"Oh, shut up. I always hated them."

"Vould jou feel better if I said I vould keep jou avay from zem?"

"Thanks. You're such a sweetie."

"If only jou encouraged me to crush ze Autobots as much as jou vant me to take care of rodents…"

Cynthia said nothing after hearing his last statement. She preferred to rather ignore it as if he said nothing. Although she continued seeing her Decepticon love, she still felt her conscious pester her at times. She just figured that as long as no one found out about it, there'd be no consequence. As far as Cyndi knew, she wasn't going to stop seeing him anytime soon.

"Vhat a lovely vay to spend a beautiful evening vith an even more beautiful femme," Random sighed. "Vhy don't ve find a spot in ze voods and enjoy ze night?"

"It's not really cold and I have my trusty jacket," said Cyndi. "We can go into the barn afterwards."

"Vonderful plan!" He looked around the snowy woodlands. "Oh, I found a lovely spot where we can go to!"

Blitzwing moved off the snow-covered dirt road and into the landscape. He walked carefully, reminding himself that he didn't want to cause too much inadvertent destruction: the area may have been quiet but it was sparsely populated which meant people weren't too farfetched of a possibility to encounter. The woods were dense and branches scrapped against his armor or caught his wing struts. However, the triple changer wasn't deterred and he pressed onward.

Cynthia sat in his servo, serenely enjoying the environment around her. She held her hand out, catching a few large snowflakes. When he walked over to an oak tree that still had a few stray leaves attached to its branches, she reached out and grabbed a shriveled up brown leaf. It practically disintegrated in her hand seconds later.

The brunette looked back at her strange friend and lover when she heard the mechanical whir of his face swapping. Once more, he caught her off guard when she saw he was looking at her already.

"I'm so thankful you can't read my thoughts," she grinned. "It looks like you really want to though judging by the look on your face."

"A month earlier, I vished I had zat capability," Icy admitted. "Not so much now… I know enough of vhat goes zhrough jour processor just by jou looking at me."

"I don't know if that's a good thing or not."

"I'm just happy jou can't read my zhoughts…" His smile melted away slightly. "Jou may not like vhat jou see."

"Oh, hush. Do you love me?"

"But of course…"

"Then that's all I need to know about your thoughts."

"Ze inner vorkings of a Decepticon's processor, especially mine, is not a zhing for an organic like jou to pry into."

"Do you eat babies?"

Blitzwing was flabbergasted by her outlandish and disturbing question. He was so shocked he stalled when he knew the answer was an immediate 'no'.

"Vhat..?"

"I can tell you don't. Your mind isn't that scary of a place. What's in it that's so bad?" She shook her head. "Let's just drop the subject now. Since we've been together, I've made a promise to myself to reduce the fights we get into."

"Yes, please… Now I really vonder about jou now zat jou asked a question like zat."

A moment later, Blitzwing sat down and leaned against the base of an old sycamore tree. He placed Cynthia on his chest but kept a servo across her like a blanket to shield her from getting snowed on and to keep her warm. She snuggled into his servo, savoring the tenderness of the moment. Blitzwing rubbed her back with a fingertip, wanting to make her feel protected and cherished in his midst.

"How'd you escape this night?" she asked, her eyes shut.

He didn't want her to worry about Megatron or any of the other Decepticons. Blitzwing felt reluctant to even hint to them for fear of making her fearful and anxious of being discovered. He had absolutely no desire to place seeds of doubt into her mind which would end up making her propose that they dissolve their relationship. Although she was organic, he loved her.

"Easily as alvays," Hothead boasted. "I left vith no problems."

"We seem to be getting lucky… Did you hear anything about Lockdown since he crossed paths with Mandy and Darien?"

"No. Good zhing too. Maybe he got ze message."

"Yeah, when I talked to them about what happened after I learned about it from you, Darien was obsessively talking about the whole experience. He kept on saying how 'legendary' you were. Once I started talking about it, he wouldn't shut up. I think you don't realize how much my brother appreciates what you've done. I mean, from the way he was talking, it seems like he sees you in a different light than earlier."

"He vouldn't stop zhanking and praising me. I zhought he vas kissing up like jour sister does to get vhat she vants."

"At least he says 'zhank jou'," said Icy.

Blitzwing didn't even want to mention Amanda. Personally, he didn't want to spoil this quiet and lovely evening by merely thinking about her. At times, he couldn't believe the blonde was Cynthia's biological sister. Then again, he could relate.

"I regret nothing," Cynthia resumed after a minute or two of gentle and comfortable silence.

The triple changer smiled.

"Good," he said. "I don't regret it eizher. I'm glad jou kissed me first. I vould've preferred it zat vay." He laughed briefly. "I figured I ought to let Beauty kiss ze Beast first. It vouldn't be appropriate ozhervise."

"Could you bring me up closer to your face, please?" she requested.

Without wasting another moment, he obeyed her. Cynthia got down into a kneeling position. She looked deeply into his optics. When she did that, she felt like she was looking into the fiery belly of a volcano which was ready to spew magma forth. She didn't think she could ever get over how his optics were so evil-looking yet calming. Sometimes, she couldn't tell if he was looking at her with malevolence or love.

"You're no beast to me," she said, running her hand across his face. "If you were a beast, I would've died in that park almost two months ago."

"I'm still a Decepticon," Hothead reminded her.

"I can make an exception for you and only you, Blitzwing." She preferred to not get too in depth with him being a Decepticon and his occupation weighing on her conscious. "I saw past the stigma you wielded and I'm glad I did. I was wrong about you earlier because I've found myself falling for you." Cyndi wanted to say so much more but she didn't want to get caught up. "You may be a Decepticon but I love you. That's why I'm here with you right now."

He looked at the woman, taking in every single little detail of her features. Her blue-gray eyes were gazing right back at him with almost holy solemnity.

"Perhaps ve are of kindred souls," said Icy. "I too risk a lot to see jou." Gingerly, he kissed her. "Zhank jou."

(half an hour later)

"Can you get through?"

"Of course I can!" the aggressive personality asserted. "I checked it out last night vhen I found it!"

"Is it stable? I don't want it collapsing on my head."

"If it vas zat bad, I vouldn't let jou go in it to begin vith. Don't be so scared!"

Cynthia walked through the crack in the door, entering the dark and empty barn. As soon as she entered, she was hit with sticky, stale air. It was noticeably warmer in there than it was outside in the snow. A few moonbeams penetrated the inky darkness of the old structure, offering her some light to navigate with.

She could hear him follow her. Cyndi turned around, seeing him practically crawling through the opening even after the barn door was opened to its fullest capacity. She laughed at his efforts.

"Does someone need to lose some weight?" she teased.

"Oh, very funny," he sourly replied. "Look who's talking, tventy one point six!"

"If I remember correctly, you're the personality that said he couldn't wait to see me skinnier! And here you are, in love with me! Chew on that."

"Jou are so lucky zat jou're mine…"

When he finally got the rest of his body in, he didn't dare to stand up. The last thing he wanted was to have the barn fall on their heads when he asserted to Cynthia it was in a stable enough condition. He had no desire to bicker with her. Like her, he wanted to have at least a few meetings go by without someone debating or starting some trouble.

"Well, I don't see any evidence in here that a coven of Satanists occupy this barn," Cynthia said happily. "All I see are rusty old scythes, moldy barrels of hay, and cobwebs that belong to spiders as big as my fist."

"Do I sense sarcasm in jour voice?" Hothead asked. "I'm in no mood for it."

"Or what?" She smiled mischievously at him. "What can you do to me? I've got you wrapped around my finger, honey."

"Even if a Decepticon loves jou, jou know better zhan to anger zem…"

"Alright, I'll stop."

Cyndi continued to explore the old abandoned structure. She walked along carefully, cautious to not impale herself on a piece of farming equipment or hurt herself in whatever way possible in the dark. The way she took everything was if she was inspecting her very first potential house to buy and live in.

Blitzwing sat cross legged on the floor, watching her study their surroundings. He scanned the interior, looking to see if there was possibly anyone or anything present with them. If there was someone there amongst the couple, he'd be able to react to them before Cynthia could. The 'Con was more than ready to react with deadly intentions to in order to protect his love and the secrecy of their bond.

"So, jou do like it?" Icy asked. "I vas zhinking zis could be a meeting spot of ours."

"Oh, I agree wholeheartedly," Cynthia nodded. "You're clever, I'll give you that. We ought to have a few meet-up places just to shuffle things up in case we have people onto us." She rejoined him, preferring to be with him rather than explore any further. "I ought to go scout for some areas myself."

"I'm certainly open for any suggestions jou have in mind."

Although she didn't ask him to, Blitzwing scooped her up into a free servo, cradling her within it. Smiling, he brought her up to his face and kissed the crown of her head.

"Alright, what do you want?" she asked.

"Nozhing, I just vanted to kiss jou because I love jou," Random stated. "Vhy?"

"Because when men start getting lovey-dovey, that means they want something. I'm sure it applies to all males regardless of what species they are."

"How about a kiss zhen?"

"I can arrange that."

Cyndi smooched him. Giggling, the childish personality nuzzled her. The woman responded by running her hand across his face, basking in the affection he bore for her.

"I love you," she said. "Screw what everyone thinks: I know what I feel for you. I wouldn't trade you for any other man."

"I promise zat if Megatron really does decide to destroy ze Earth, I vill find a vay to spare jou and ve vill still remain togezher," said Hothead. "I von't ever break zat promise even zhough I am a Decepticon. Zat's no lie, Cyndi. Jou can count on me."

She disregarded the mental images she got of Decepticons setting cities ablaze and trampling helpless people. Quite easily, she envisioned her sweetie being one of those angels of destruction. With all her might, she suppressed the imagined yet potentially possible reality that she would be sitting in Blitzwing's servo as she watched members of her own race suffer and die miserable deaths like victims in a concentration camp. Those very same tortured souls would glare back at her as the light left their eyes and utter their last word: 'traitor'.

(Preston apartment – 10:00pm)

"Oh my God, please…" Darien pouted.

"Shut up!" Amanda screeched. "You will sit and watch it like a man!"

'_Jack, there's a boat! Jack!_'

Amanda blew her nose loudly. Darien rolled his eyes at the scene, disbelieving her was forced to watch this movie with his sister.

"Wake him up!" Amanda threw a box of tissues at the TV. "He's sinking! Rose, get him!"

"It's a movie!" her brother reminded her. "You react this way every single time you watch this scene!"

"I can't help it! '_Titanic_' is the greatest movie of all time! If you don't like it, you have no soul!" Her eyes widened when the young man slipped beneath the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. "No! He had so much to live for!"

"Yeah, it sucks the tragedy actually happened but I simply can't stomach this movie… Would you shut up? Our neighbors will think you're being murdered!"

"This scene murders my soul every single time I watch it!"

"Then let me turn it off…"

He made a move to turn off the television. Amanda swiftly reached over and grabbed the back of his shirt. Darien turned around to face her, seeing he was greeted by a very irate Mandy.

"You will sit down and watch it and you will like it!"

Without another word, Darien sat down. He cleared his throat and tried to shake off the awkwardness of the moment.

"Psycho," he muttered under his breath.

Then they heard a knock on the door. Both of their heads turned to the door.

"Go get the door, butthead," she ordered.

"Who is it?" Darien called from across the room.

There was no reply. They waited for a few seconds for an answer of some kind but they were only met with silence. Both held their breaths.

"Hello?" Mandy called.

Nothing.

"Is Cyndi playing a joke on us?" Darien asked.

"No, I doubt it," Mandy dismissed his question. "She just texted me five minutes ago saying she and Blitzwing were in a barn." Darien gave her a confused look. "That's what she said."

"Okay. Ignoring that odd comment… Someone did knock on the door, right?"

"Yeah, I heard it. Let's go together."

Disregarding her favorite movie, Amanda got up off the couch and started to advance towards the door. Darien followed her closely. The siblings were a bit nervous as time went on since no one had stated who they were or even answered them.

Cautiously, Amanda unlocked the door. Darien stood behind her by a few mere inches to make sure everything would unfold safely. The girl turned the knob and opened the door slowly.

They both looked outside, seeing no one outside. It was still snowing just as it had been for the past few hours. Everything was quiet and peaceful.

"Pranksters," Amanda finalized.

"Wait, what's that?" Darien said, pointing to the mailbox that hung up on their door.

Mandy saw what Darien had pointed out. There was a piece of paper that was sticking out of the mailbox. She took it out, noticing it looked a little old and seemed crumpled up.

"What's this..?" she murmured.

It was folded up. She unfolded it, seeing that there was a message written on it. Her green eyes widened in confusion as she recognized the handwriting.

"Darien, this is Cyndi's handwriting," Amanda said, feeling a little spooked.

It was a message Cynthia clearly had written to someone. It read: '_Stay away from me and my family. I don't appreciate stalkers. Or it's war and you will lose_'.

"Who did she write this to?" Darien pondered.

They read on, seeing that the note continued. But upon further inspection, they saw that this was not their sister's handwriting. It belonged to someone else. It read: '_I accept_'.


	20. What Goes Around Comes Around

**Thanks for the reviews my dears :) I'm glad to see you have been guessing who might be the culprit but you just need to stick around to find out what's really going on. In this chapter, I've finally had included the Autobots once more... Sheesh, I really need to learn how to get them in on the story more often but I admit I'm not the greatest at writing them. There'll definitely be more 'Bot scenes but they'll be gradually showing up as the plot thickens. Enjoy the update as always!**

Chapter 20 What Goes Around Comes Around

(Autobot base – 11:00pm)

"It's all quiet… Much too quiet actually."

Ratchet looked over his shoulder when he heard the ninja bot speak so suddenly. He didn't even know he was standing behind him.

"You almost gave me a spark attack," Ratchet said grumpily. "Way to let me know you were even in here."

Prowl was looking out a horizontally placed series of windows that lined a wall of the abandoned factory where he and his fellow Autobots resided. Silently, he was watching the snow fall, appreciating the frozen and simplistic beauty. Once more, the contemplative and austere mech was pondering.

"I was merely watching the snow," was his reply to the medic. "I never thought that watching it could be so therapeutic and soothing."

"Your helm is always stuck up in the clouds," Ratchet remarked, "especially when you're in the midst of nature."

Prowl turned his back on the windows with the intentions to give his comrade his impartial attention. The gold and black Cybertronian walked over to Ratchet on stabilizing servos that hardly made a noise.

"I said earlier that things were much too quiet," Prowl stated, "do you agree?"

"I'm afraid I have to," the old Autobot admitted. "Things are quiet. No citizens have come forward regarding seeing any Decepticons in the area. No one is seeing them… It's like they've turned into ghosts and evaporated from the universe forever."

"Bumblebee and I thought we had Blitzwing over three weeks earlier. We picked up on his energy signal while we were going on patrol through the city and we decided to follow him. We lost sight of him but we found evidence of him up at the north on a peninsula overlooking the lake. He probably sensed we were closing in and he took off before we could see him."

"Seems like he's Megatron's errand boy if you ask me."

"True. But what was he doing at Erie? Is there something there that we're overlooking?"

"I wish I could answer that. I know I want to know what they're up to just as much as you and everyone else." Ratchet paused for a moment, remembering something. "Do you remember the incident with the girl who got kidnapped?"

"I wasn't there at the girl's residence but Optimus told me everything. He said Captain Fanzone spoke to the organic and he told him she couldn't remember anything. Her car, alongside the girl, was apparently picked up by a Decepticon after she crashed and had lost consciousness. She was held in their base for a day and then apparently released. She woke up in the wooded area behind the apartment complex where she lives without any recollection of what happened."

"Do you think there might be a connection between the girl who went missing for a day and Blitzwing who was by the lake?"

"I'm open for any and all possibilities. I certainly don't doubt that the Decepticons did hold her: there was a footprint where her vehicle's license plate was discovered. But no one, not even the girl, can answer the question why she was even returned to her home. Optimus said Fanzone told him the girl refused to go to the hospital to make sure everything was alright. I think the typical Human reaction for someone in her situation would be to react more frightened and beg to be taken to the hospital."

Ratchet placed his servo on his chin thoughtfully. Although he didn't want to admit it, the much younger bot did make a good point. At times, he felt degraded acknowledging the ideas of his junior teammates, believing they were outshining his status as the senior and most experienced out of them. But every now and then, he could make an exception.

"Maybe so," the ambulance nodded.

"If you ask me, I think that in order to crack the mystery of what went on, the girl ought to be brought to us for questioning," Prowl reasoned. "We know what the Decepticons are like more than Fanzone does. I think I ought to advise Optimus and the others about this in the morning after everyone has gotten some recharge."

"My medical expertise doesn't really include Human biology… But I can certainly check to see if there was any sign of trauma she and the organic doctors didn't notice from her experience… There are some things that just don't add up, Prowl. Why did they let her go? Why didn't they kill her or hold her?"

"I don't know. We're just going to have to find out one way or another. I just know those Decepticons are up to something and I know I want in."

(Preston apartment – 1:00am)

Amazingly, the light was on when she entered her humble abode. Cynthia could see immediately see her sister was sitting on the couch. Right away, she feared a replay of what happened back in January when she returned home after she and Blitzwing came clean with their feelings. She was ready to dodge in a heartbeat if a book was thrown at her head by an irate Amanda.

"Is anyone up?" Cyndi closed the door behind her. "Or was the light left on?"

"Darien's asleep, he has school tomorrow," Amanda replied, glancing over to her. There didn't seem to be any hostility in her voice. "Get your butt over here right now. You need to see this."

Without delaying another second, the brunette walked over to the couch where her sister sat. She sat down next to her, seeing Mandy was holding a piece of paper that was folded up in her hands.

"What is that?" Cyndi asked.

"I don't know, you tell me," the girl answered.

Amanda unfolded the piece of paper, revealing handwriting before Cynthia. The eldest Preston sister's eyes grew when she identified the writing as her own without hesitation or denial. She nearly choked on nothing and she felt as if someone slugged her in her stomach.

"Where did this come from?" she demanded, ripping the note of Amanda's hands. "How is this possible?"

"Someone knocked on our door and put it in the mailbox," Mandy explained. "Darien and I never saw who put it in."

It didn't take long for Cynthia to see there was more than the threat she wrote to the man whom she thought was Blitzwing's holoform. When she read the simple yet powerful two word reply, she thought she was going to die sitting up in her seat.

"I…" Cyndi tried to explain to Mandy. "I wrote this way back in December after you told me about the guy who was in the parking lot looking at you. I wrote this note to him and threw it out the window, hoping he'd get it." She laughed nervously. "Looks like he did… I thought it was Blitzwing in disguise on that night but I learned it later wasn't."

"What are we dealing with exactly?" Mandy said.

"I don't know but I don't like it. I declared war on someone who I have no clue is my enemy. With my luck, I wouldn't be surprised if I had ignited a conflict with an inhuman person: a Transformer."

"Why does everything always pile up like this?" Mandy shook her head, burying her face into her palm. "Yeah, that would be your luck… Then I'd get dragged into it."

"I have to remain calm and collected. I can't let this get out of hand…"

"Call Blitzwing."

"No, I'm not getting him dragged into this!"

"I bet it was that bounty hunter Darien and I ran into!"

"Lockdown? I doubt it. Blitzwing scared him off… temporarily at least."

"Blitzwing will protect you! You're his girl, right? Use that to your advantage! For God's sake, he's a giant robot! He won't let anything hurt you! You have to tell him you made a mistake and now some psycho is after you! I'm sure he'll understand."

"He already risks enough by seeing me. If I ask him to keep a close eye on me, he could be endangering himself even more. I can't have that weighing on my conscious."

"Fine, then don't ask him." Amanda smirked. "He'll end up doing the task of guarding you either way because guys are like that."

"Oh, shut up. You act like you know guys be they aliens or Earthlings…"

"Somehow, I don't think Blitzwing is a big wimp. He's scary and I've learned to not mess with him…" Amanda swallowed. She recalled when he arrived to stick up for her and Darien while Lockdown held them captive. The girl didn't doubt Blitzwing wasn't very fond of her. "I don't think he'd be afraid to protect you from some guy who wants to kill you."

"Oh, lovely." Cynthia bit her lower lip. "I'm not going to mention anything to him until I have absolute proof that I am in real danger."

"So if a guy comes at you with a chainsaw, are you going to call him?"

"You bet your ass I will. Hell, I won't call… I'll scream for him."

"Should we tell the police about this?"

"No. Like I said, I can't afford to have everything blown out of proportion. Plus, maybe some joker thought it was funny to write back to my note and they really aren't planning anything."

"It took them almost two months to put it in our mailbox. I smell premeditation and careful plotting."

"Mandy, you're paranoid."

Cynthia folded up the note after looking at it one last time. She threw it into her purse, preferring to forget about it altogether. Then she stood up, abandoning her spot on the couch. Her eyes didn't break away from Amanda's face.

"Let's just continue with business as usual," she said. "Don't say anything to anyone."

"I see where this is going," Amanda said. "More promises of silence, eh? We are going to get caught sooner or later, you know that?"

"If that's the case, I will try my hardest to prolong the inevitable or divert it altogether. I'm not going down without a fight. I'll use whatever brainpower I can to save myself and Blitzwing from discovery."

"I'm gonna change topics now because I have a question that's been gnawing at me… What were you doing in a barn with him?"

"Chatting and bonding."

Amanda smiled sheepishly. She rubbed her hands together and chuckled softly.

"You're keeping something from me," the youngest sister accused. "Please, do tell me more."

"You demented pervert," Cynthia said disdainfully.

"Hey, how do you..?" She cleared her throat. "Well, you know… "

"Grow a brain, will ya? It's physically impossible! If I wasn't already dead, every single bone in my body would be shattered irreparably!"

"Not true!" Amanda grinned mischievously. "Holoform, Cynthia. Holoform! Is he a good kisser? I'm sure it'd be slow and steady at first. Then, it'd get rough like a jerky roller coaster ride! As for Pumpkin Head…"

"While you're at it, why don't you grow up?"

Mandy laughed jovially at her own dirty accusations and thoughts.

"Oh, it's much too fun being a pervert!" she winked at Cynthia. "Come on, I know you have thoughts about you and that disguise doing some randy things… It's normal, you know? Plus, when your boyfriend is an alien robot you need to find other ways to relieve yourself."

"Goodnight!" Cynthia said loudly, retreating into her bedroom.

(Decepticon base – 1:00am)

"All I need is a good evening's recharge," Icy said longingly.

Blitzwing entered his quarters completely undetected. When he returned to the lair, neither Lugnut, Megatron or Starscream had crossed paths with him. Due to the lack of presences, he had assumed they all turned in for the evening to indulge in some sweet, sweet recharge.

The automatic door closed softly behind him as Blitzwing walked further away from it. His berth never seemed so inviting yet empty before. A tiny smirk graced his faceplate as long as he looked at it.

"I vant happy dreams tonight," Random almost wished. He sat down on the side of the berth. "I vill dream of my lovely!"

Finally, he laid down on his back. His systems whined down to rest themselves and his optics felt like they were iron curtains. The triple changer sighed: but it was an exhale of contentment and satisfaction.

"I don't zhink I can fall into recharge so easily because I can't stop zhinking about tonight," Random babbled to the other two personalities. "Tonight vas perfect!"

"It vas serene and pleasant," Icy actually agreed with the puckish personality.

"And as much as I love blowing zhings up and crushing Autobot helms in my servos, I zhink I can endure some peace every once in avhile," Hothead confessed. "But of course, it all depends on who I'm vith…"

Bits of rock fell on his faceplate from the rocky ceiling above. Blitzwing gawked at the height above, sensing something was certainly amiss. His defenses bristled and he was ready to fight at a mere second's notice. He narrowed his optics to see what exactly was hovering above his berth.

As he looked on for a few seconds, a pair of optics similar to his own optic coloration appeared out of the darkness, glowing villainously. Blitzwing clenched his servos into fists. His cannon barrels came down over his shoulders and fire licked at the barrels' mouths.

"Show jourself or I fire!" he warned.

"Hey, take it easy," the all too familiar voice replied. "I was just waiting for you."

Blitzwing growled angrily, sounding like an annoyed lion.

"In ze ceiling?" he pressed intensely. "Vhat did jou plan on doing? Vatch me slip into recharge and zhen tear my spark out vhen I least expect it? I'm surprised jou haven't done it already, Pretty Bot."

Starscream withdrew his cruel claws from the rock, falling from the ceiling. He landed on his feet at the foot of his brother's berth. Now that he retreated from the veil of the dark ceiling, Blitzwing could see him quite clearly and easily. The seeker wore his trademark sly smile. His servo rested on his chin and his optics bore the air of a seasoned hunter.

"Vhat are jou doing up on my ceiling?" Blitzwing demanded. "Jou obviously are here and not in jour quarters for recharge."

"I wanted to chat and nothing else," Starscream said carelessly. "I'm merely curious about your forays into the world of the squishies."

"And I just vant to get some recharge. Get jour aft outta here now!"

"But I'm wide awake. And you even said you won't be able to recharge so easily." Starscream shrugged. "So, why not?"

"Jou vill not let me recharge until I talk, von't jou?"

"Ah, you know me too well, Blitzwing."

"No slag, idiot! Ve grew up togezher!"

Starscream's smile didn't melt away. Blitzwing folded his arms across his chest. One looked at the other with whittling patience. The other was merely as patient and sly as the Devil himself.

"Humans intrigue me at times," Starscream said after a few moments of awkward silence. "As much as I think little of them, I have to admit they are alike Cybertronians in many startling ways. Like us, they come in all different kinds of shapes and sizes. Just as we have mechs and femmes, they have men and women. They have hopes, dreams, fears and feelings as we do. They can be capable of divine righteousness or demonic sin. I can go on about the parallels for quite some time…" He took a few steps closer to Blitzwing. The second in command stood in front of him, looking down on him imposingly. "Am I right or am I right?"

"Yes, I have noticed zat," Icy said cautiously. "Our species is very much alike. But, ve do have our prominent differences."

"Enlighten me on those points. Personally, if you ask me, you seem to know more about them than anyone else does in this dreary place. Professor Sumdac is a miserable stiff who speaks to no one."

"Ve Cybetronians are obviously larger zhan ze organics. Humans are born vith little defense mechanisms: actually, zhey're quite pitiful."

"You have no other point to make considering where we differ with them?"

"I vould remember more points if I got recharge." Icy glowered at his unwanted visitor. "Starscream, I may not have a very sound processor but I am certainly not an idiot. Just vhat are jou setting up?"

"I am merely asking you about them because you go out into their world far more than I, Megatron or Lugnut do, dear brother. I am sure that while you go out on your hunts for Allspark fragments, you frequently interact with Earthlings whether they are aware of it or not."

"Zhey don't know I am amongst zhem!" Random said. "I have my vays of fooling zhem, Starscream. Zhey suspect nozhing!"

"Well, I am impressed. If the situation calls for it, you can be subtle and evasive like smoke. May I ask you a question?"

"Ask avay!"

Starscream pointed to the nightstand next to the berth. Blitzwing traced this trajectory, looking at the table. He shrugged apathetically at what he saw despite the fact Random was the currently dominant personality.

"I see teeny tiny little brown dots," he said. "Vhat's ze point?"

"To me, it looks like dried blood, Blitzwing," Starscream said innocently. "You do know the organic lifeforms on this planet ooze red liquid when they're sliced open. My scanners did indicate they were of organic origin and not splotches of brown paint."

Blitzwing continued to gaze on the dots the seeker claimed was dried blood. He leaned over to the nightstand and ran his fingertip across the tainted area. Icy took control, activating his scanners. Within a few seconds, his readings proved to be accurate regarding as to what Starscream proposed. It was Cynthia's blood. He prayed to Primus that the seeker didn't suspect it was Human blood.

"Slag!" Icy cursed within the helm. "Zis vas so tiny and insignificant, I didn't even notice it!

After he smuggled her battered vehicle into his quarters, he gently pulled her out of her seat. He recalled that there was a gash on her head that was oozing blood. He was no medic so he made no effort to clean up her wound. Not only that, she wasn't gushing out torrents either that were certainly life threatening. While she was unconscious, Blitzwing also did a quick scan to make sure she wasn't suffering from interal injuries from the crash (because there was certainly no way she was going to let him do it while she was conscious). When the triple changer saw all was well for the most part, he allowed her to lie on the nightstand until she regained consciousness.

"Zat fragger came into my room and snooped around vhile I vas gone!" Hothead retorted. "I vill rip his ving struts off and beat him vith zem!"

"Yes, Starscream, zat is indeed organic blood," Random said after a moment of contemplative silence. "Jou see, I brought back an animal vhile I vas out one evening and cut it open. I really vanted to see vhat vas inside it!"

"Okay…" Starscream rolled his optics. "I didn't need to know that."

"Shut up, jou brought it up anyvay!" Hothead debated.

"Tell me, how did you get the animal that you so gruesomely eviscerated?"

"Idiot, zhere are animals in ze voods! I came across one, grabbed it and brought it back." He smirked grimly. "It felt good to have its blood on my fingers."

"Okay, I get the jist of it... I have one more question to ask you though."

"One more question and zhen get out."

"Fair enough." He paused for a few seconds. "What do you think about the femmes?"

All three of his personalities felt like they were being baited. In silent unison, they agreed to do what they could to preserve Cynthia's life. He was ready to weave whatever creative and calculated lie he could to lead Starscream away from suspecting her presence in his life.

"Vhat kind of stupid question is zat?" Hothead snorted.

"Have you noticed any difference between our femmes and the organic wenches?"

"No. Human and Cybertronian femmes are ze same if jou ask me. Zhey never shut up and zhey vhine about every little zhing!"

"Oh, and zhey're both quite ze zhings to look at!" Random snickered. Then he laughed heartily. "I'm just joking!"

"A Human is a Human," Icy said in a detached manner. "Zhey live for about eighty stellar cycles or so (give or take a few) and zhen zhey expire. Zhey're merely germs."

"Sorry, but I just had to ask you that," Starscream said. "I overheard you saying something about a perfect night and 'my lovely'." He placed his hands on his hips. "Have you been seeing Blackarachnia behind our backs, you sly dog? There's no reason to be ashamed of that either. In fact, I'd envy you if that was the case. She's one tough cookie, that, and she hates your guts as far as I know. Then again, she hates everyone."

"Pfft, I'm not in love vith anyone!" Hothead lied. "Don't be stupid!"

"I figured that much… Who'd fall in love with a wreck like you anyway?" He motioned to himself. "As for me… I'm just disinterested in those kinds of flings altogether. It's a complete waste of time. I know the femmes like me but an extraordinary one has to go above and beyond to even have me glance at her…"

"Get out, stop talking my audio receptors off! I vant to recharge!"

"Alright, sheesh." Starscream turned his back on Blitzwing. "Sweet dreams, Blitzwing. I better not find you curled up beside me when I come back online like when we were younglings, alright?"

"GET OUT!"

A stifled laugh managed to escape from his metal lips. The triple changer angrily turned over onto his side just so he wouldn't even see Starscream exit his quarters. He stewed within himself, feeling a bit startled, angered, hurt and straight out annoyed all at once.

"I hate him, he's such an aft," the red face cursed. "Vhy don't I just beat ze living slag out of him to have him stop treating me like a sparkling?"

"Because, he's family vhether ve vant to acknowledge it or not," Icy reminded.

"Do jou zhink Cynzhia is in danger?" Random jumped in. "I hope not! I can't let him hurt my sveet organic!"

"If he even reaches out one of his grubby claws out to her, he's going down hard!" Hothead vowed. "He von't know about her and he von't hurt her…"

"Perhaps ve must varn her zat Starscream may be onto our meetings," Icy suggested. "It's dishonest to keep her in ze dark about it entirely but I don't vant to alarm her and drive her avay from me. I do care for her…"

"Be a bot about it! Next time I talk to her, I'm going to give her a varning. Starscream's been keeping an optic on me, I know it…" He frowned heavily. "Vell, I'm gonna keep a close optic on him too!"

(…)

"_All you need is love! All you need is love! All you need is love, love! Love is all you need…_"

Cynthia's new ringtone had the honor of being the first thing to greet her a good morning. The song sliced through the silence of her bedroom, killing the calm that had been reigning since she went to bed six hours earlier at two in the morning.

Her eyes opened up heavily, catching sight of the phone lying on the nightstand. The first thing she saw was her digital alarm clock which revealed to her the exact time: eight thirty five. She groaned out loud, sounding like a zombie stumbling its way out of its cobweb infested crypt.

Her hand lashed out at the phone in an effort to silence it. Her fingers fumbled for the device, barely being able to grasp it.

At last, she grabbed it, flipped it open and pressed the 'talk' button. Cyndi brought the cell phone up to her ear.

"Hello?" It didn't even sound like her own voice since she was so groggy.

"Good morning, sunshine!" a high-pitched, happy voice greeted her.

Instantly, she smiled upon hearing Random's voice. The brunette sat up in her bed, holding her covers close to her body in her free hand.

"Good morning, handsome," she replied, still sounding a bit odd. She cleared her throat. "What a pleasant surprise. What possessed you to call me this early in the morning? You woke me up."

"I'll get straight to the point as I'm sure jou prefer," Icy said. "I vanted to talk to jou about somezhing vhile zhere vas still some time…"

"Okay… You're making me a bit anxious about this."

"Don't be afraid, I just vanted to varn jou."

"Warn me? What's going on?"

"Last night, I found out zat jou might be in danger."

Her thoughts instantly turned to the note. However, she still preferred to not mention it to him that it had been replied to.

"How so?" Cynthia held the phone closer to her ear. She was relieved the blinds were pulled down over her window.

"Starscream," he revealed. "He's been asking about me going out at night. I don't zhink he's avare of jour existence but I zhink he's onto somezhing. I just vanted to varn jou about it because I know zat if he finds out about jou, he vill kill jou."

"Starscream… Do you mean the guy who almost busted us when you smuggled me out of the base back in January?"

"Precisely. He's ze second in command of ze Decepticons for a reason, Cynzhia. I zhink ve should use even more caution zhan ve already do."

"I take it he's one nasty 'Con?"

"Among ozher zhings, but yes," Hothead added. "He's not to be trusted under any circumstances."

"Okay. So, what should I do?"

"Look out for anozher man who vill have my optic color. He's tricky and I zhink he vould adopt a Human holoform to find out more about vhy I have been going out at night. I don't know if he knows jour name or vhat jou look like but I don't vant to take any chances."

"Right… So I ought to be wary of a stranger with red colored irises who suddenly takes an interest in me?"

"Yes."

"What about you?"

"Don't jou vorry about me. At least I can defend myself against Starscream. No offense, but jou're organic so jou have to rely on me for protection."

"Do you think it would be smart for us to meet up soon to discuss this further?"

"For now, I zhink ve ought to stay avay from each ozher for a few days until ze heat blows over," Icy advised. "I vill contact jou tonight or tomorrow if I have any more suspicions about Starscream. Do me a favor too, Cynzhia."

"What is it?"

"Don't be afraid to contact me if jou feel zhreatened. I vill do vhat I can and try to protect jou. I vill have to be sly about it zhough but I should be able to pull it off."

"I will only ask you to arrive under the gravest circumstances. I can call the police, alright? I don't want you to jump through a flaming hoop as if you were a circus lion. You have to think about yourself too and not just me."

"I'm just concerned for jou because jou're an organic," Hothead explained. "Jou're so tiny and defenseless."

"Humans can stick up for themselves if we absolutely have to, Blitzwing. We have brains so at least we have a chance. I'm not a complete idiot but I'm no Einstein for that matter either."

"Nonezeless, jou better still get a hold of me if jou are in serious danger. Don't be stupid to prove a point to me, Cynzhia. Do jou understand me?"

"Yes…"

"Vonderful!" Random said cheerfully. "Now, I vill let jou go, Cynzhia. Have a good day and I vill talk to jou later! I love jou!"

Although she was nervous and a little annoyed at his insistence to have her call him if anything potentially threatening would arise, Cyndi couldn't remain irked at him for long. Every single time he said he loved her, she found herself smiling and happy. It was impossible to have a frown on her face when he told her the magical three words.

"I love you too," she answered softly.


	21. Madame Marishka's Divination

**Thanks for the reviews my peeps! :) Okay, allow me to explain a few things for this chapter... I'll admit that this is a weird chapter but I wanted to make it a little intriguing and dark at the same time. There's going to be a new OC introduced but she's not going to be a very important figure. She's kind of stereotypical to a certain extent but I've always thought her type of character was so cool. She will appear a few times in this story and that's it. She may/may not be a Mary Sue: if so, oh well because she's not very significant. This chapter is also heavily OC-centric even more so than my other chapters but I promise it won't be without a good reason for having no canon characters in it. Chapter 22 will be much more interesting and exciting: I promise! So, enjoy and please review! P.S. Have a very merry Christmas! :D I might have another chapter up before 2011 ends.**

Chapter 21 Madame Marishka's Divination

(February 4th, Detroit High School - 2:30pm)

"Check her out." Benji lightly elbowed Darien. "I'm talking about the new girl, Tris."

"What?" Darien rolled his eyes, disinterested in making eye contact with her at the moment. "She already gets enough of me in biology class. If I look at her and if she sees me looking back at her, she'll pummel me."

"Bro, don't tell me you're afraid of a girl," Paul said.

"Try sitting next to her in biology every day." Nervously, Darien glanced over at the girl in her orange hoody. She was walking down the sidewalk away from the high school. Thankfully, she seemed oblivious to the fact he was studying her. "She can be a scary lady. She cuts open bugs we dissect like nobody's business. She said she's so good at it because her dad's a woodcutter and she helps out with his sculptures sometimes."

"She doesn't talk to anybody," the fourth member of the group, Teddy, said. "She's not a Goth, nerd, prep, stoner or jock. That chick's a hardcore loner. She's mean as a snake, man."

"She's smart." Darien felt it appropriate to stick up for her in some way. "So what if she's a loner? Tristan's got a tough shell but that's cool with me. At least she's not hanging out with those plastic skanks Natalie and Beverly."

"Hey, did you guys hear about what happened to Beverly's sister big sister, Denise?" Benji changed the subject. He never could stay on topic but the ADD he had was an excuse for such an impediment. "Like two months ago, a few days before Christmas, she was hitting on this guy at the mall. He punched her square in her nose, breaking it!"

"No, you're lying," Teddy brushed him off. "How do you know?"

"Because Denise's friend, Harley, was with her when she got punched! She had to go to the hospital! Dude, I'd pay to watch the dude punch her in the face again!"

"You're messed up," Paul shook his head.

Despite what he said earlier about not wanting to observe Tristan, Darien found himself watching her walk along down the sidewalk. Thankfully, her back was turned to him. She was carrying her book bag and her hands were shoved into her front pockets.

Since he first met her a few weeks earlier when the second half of their junior year commenced, he found himself drawn to the withdrawn and overtly defensive girl. Darien pitied her to a certain extent and he found himself becoming a little partial to her. That pity came from the observation that Tristan had not made any friends although it was obvious it was a conscious choice she made. True, she could be crude and unfriendly but he could see she wasn't like this thoroughly.

Since they had been paired up as lab partners, Darien began to see her as a friend. He had often invited her to hang out with him and his friends but every single time, she had declined. He disliked seeing her being alone but he believed it wasn't wise to push his luck and ruin their fledgling respect for each other.

As a result of interacting with her five of the seven days of the week, he became more and more interested in her. There were times when he asked her about her life but she merely disregarded his questions, telling the boy she didn't think it was right to tell a stranger too much. She repelled him but engaged him: Darien wanted to know more about this lone wolf.

He also didn't even dream of telling his friends that he believed he started to see her as something a bit more of a friend. When he looked at her face, he loved the way her tan skin contrasted with her blue eyes. Her blonde hair only complimented the beauty he saw in her. Darien thought her to be attractive but he decided to hold off on any and all possible romantic gestures due to the fact he believed he had fairly accurate judgment regarding her reaction. For now, he figured he'd just be the "acquaintance" she referred to him as.

(apartment - 8:00pm)

'_I accept_'.

Cynthia held the note in her hand, reading the two word reply over and over again for the past ten minutes. She wracked her brain over who could've possibly replied to the letter that was meant to be directed to Blitzwing during the days when she hated and feared him. The handwriting wasn't familiar.

"Who's sick enough to reply and put it in my mailbox without showing their face?" she mumbled to herself.

Amanda tried to soothe her anxiety by saying that this was the craft of a jokester with no evil intentions. But she had disregarded her sister's theory, believing there was someone viler than a prankster who had done this. However, she had no clue who had done this and it was slowly beginning to torture her as long as she was starved of an answer.

Blitzwing had contacted her last night practically telling her the same thing he told her when he woke her up earlier that morning. She still refused to tell him about the note, fearing he'd go on some overprotective splurge which would threaten to uproot their secret. Again, he urged her to watch herself and to trust no strangers, especially if they were male.

'_I accept_'.

"Damn you. I want to know who replied to this so I know what I'm up against."

"Put that stupid thing down!" Amanda commanded, barging into Cyndi's room.

Cyndi looked over her shoulder. Carelessly, she tossed the piece of paper off to the side, deciding to not exacerbate the situation.

"Fine, it's on the floor," she said glumly.

"We're going to do something different tonight," Mandy announced, sitting next to her. "I think you'll like it."

"I'm not even going to bother with guessing, just tell me what it is. I'll sigh and probably complain but still do it nonetheless."

"I found an ad in the newspaper when I was working today."

"You don't ever read the newspaper."

"It was a slow day at work and I was bored out of my mind. So, I found an ad for a fortune teller."

Cynthia scoffed, seeing exactly where this was going.

"Are you serious?" she raised an eyebrow. "You intend on dragging me to some palm reader? Do you honestly believe that stuff? It's a scam!"

"But it's fun and different!" Mandy smiled. "I want my fortune told by a fortune teller! I want to see a crystal ball, beaded doorways, scented candles and all those works! Come on, don't be a party pooper!"

"It's hard to not be a party pooper when someone is probably poised to kill you in your sleep."

"You'll be fine, you have a giant metal man on your side. No one else has that privilege. I called the fortune teller today on my break and I set up an appointment with her. We have to be there in a half an hour."

"How much money are we going to be conned out of?"

"It's thirty dollars for one reading per person. Cough it up and let's roll!"

(a half an hour later)

"Hello?"

Tristan Cooley opened up the front door upon hearing someone knock on it. She immediately came into contact with two young women who were standing side by side. One appeared to be in her early twenties and the other appeared to be about eighteen or nineteen.

"Can I help you two ladies?" she asked, a little curious.

"You don't sound like Madame Marishka," the young blonde said. "I talked with her on the phone earlier today. Do I even have the right house or did my sister and I screw up royally with the directions?"

Tristan blinked a few times, realizing they were customers of her mother's. She felt so stupid for a moment.

"Oh, forgive me," she said. "I should've realized this earlier. My mother never told me she had two ladies coming tonight to have their fortunes told." The girl moved out of the way and extended her arm out, motioning for them to enter her house. "Please, come in."

Cynthia and Amanda entered the Cooley residence, not realizing the fortune teller's establishment of business was her house. Tristan closed the door behind them, closing the gateway between the warm interior and the February cold. The Preston sisters unzipped their jackets. Cynthia removed her scarf and Mandy stuffed her gloves into her pocket.

"There's a coat hanger here that you may place your jackets on," Tristan said, gesturing to the rack bolted to the wall. "I'll go tell my mom you've arrived."

The teen walked down the hall and made a right, entering a room. Cyndi placed her jacket on one of the hangers situated on the rack. Amanda was busy looking around the place, on the lookout for Gypsy paraphernalia.

"I was expecting some shady shop tucked in a street corner," Cynthia whispered to Amanda. "I didn't expect the business to be based in a suburb, let alone someone's house."

"I don't smell jasmine incense," Mandy said in a disappointed voice. "I think you're right: I've been conned!"

"Shut up! Don't be rude like that! Let's make the most of it now. You got us into this mess. Our sixty dollars will be wasted because of your stupidity. Learn that lesson in investment well."

They saw Tristan poke her out into the hall a few seconds later. There was a small, polite smile on her tan face.

"She'll see you now," she announced. "I take it that one of you is Amanda Preston?"

"Yup, that's me," Amanda raised her hand. "I called Madame Marishka to arrange the reading. I brought my sister with me."

"Very well. Enjoy and good luck with your fortunes."

The rest of Tristan's body emerged from the doorway and she walked further up the hall where there was a staircase. She scaled the staircase with the intentions to retire to her room for the rest of the evening.

"I guess this is our cue," Mandy shrugged. "Come on, let's see what this is all about."

Cynthia followed Mandy's lead as the younger sibling walked down to where Tristan was standing earlier. She had to admit that although she didn't believe in palm readings, tarot cards and the like, going to have her fortune divined was a different thing to do rather than studying or watching TV. She also figured she and Amanda could have a laugh about the whole experience later on in life regarding which prophecies didn't come about. Maybe she could even tell Blitzwing about it later too just to see what his reactions (or better yet reactions) would be.

There were no beads that hung from the doorway that led into the living room. When they looked into the room where Tristan said her mother was, they saw nothing extraordinary like shrunken heads or potion bottles that contained glowing elixirs. There was a television. Across the room, there was a dresser whose surface was occupied with picture frames. On the wall above the dresser, there was a large wooden crucifix with a wreath of dried up roses resting upon Christ's head.

In the middle of the room, there was a round coffee table with a purple, velvety cloth covering the top. Sitting at the table in a red armchair, there sat a woman who appeared to be in her mid-forties. Across the table was a bench that looked like it could hold the weight of two occupants.

"Good evening, ladies," the woman greeted in her thick Romanian accent. "It's a pleasure to have you here in my humble abode."

"Madame Marishka," Amanda concluded. "It's a pleasure for you to read us our fortunes tonight."

"Ah, you must be the other soul your sister mentioned on the phone earlier."

"Yes," Cynthia spoke up, "I'm Cyndi. It's nice to meet you as well."

"Don't be strangers, please sit."

The two walked over to the table and took their seats on the bench. As they got closer, they got a good look at the fortune teller.

She was wearing a blue and red babushka that covered her thick dark brown curly hair. Her skin was fair in comparison to her daughter's sun kissed hue. Her eyes were a ruddy brown with specks of green in them. On her left ring finger she wore a plain golden wedding band. Marishka's right wrist bore a beaded leather bracelet. Around her neck, she wore a dull silver cross and there was another necklace that bore an amulet which had a tiny engraving of Saint Andrew. Because the siblings couldn't see her outfit fully, they only got to see a bit of her clothing in particularly her shirt which was a white blouse.

"I have a method to my readings, ladies," Marishka said as the girls seated themselves. "Some people like to have their fortunes divined with tarot cards and palm readings which I can do if you prefer. However, I am also gifted with foresight. It was a talent I had always possessed since I was little girl. I can see your future just by touching your hand and feeling your aura."

Cynthia wanted to laugh but she fought it back. She couldn't believe she was wasting thirty dollars for this nonsense. Yet she was also curious as to see what this foreigner would cook up for her fortune.

"The glimpses I get of the future are brief and not always can be trusted," she further explained. "The future is constantly in motion and it can be altered once you have been given a taste of it through my readings. The choice is yours."

"I don't like tarot cards," Mandy said. "If I end up getting the Death card, I might as well shoot myself." She looked to Cyndi. "Do you just want her to use her abilities to see the future and read our auras?"

"Yeah, that's fine, whatever works with me," Cyndi grinned.

"Smashing," Marishka said happily. "Who wants to go first?"

"Is that alright if I go first?" Mandy asked. "I've been dying to have mine done since this afternoon!"

"Your wish is granted, Amanda."

Cyndi placed her hand over her mouth, stifling a spray of laughter. She glanced over at Amanda playfully.

Mandy placed her hand on the table, allowing Marishka to commence the readings. The seer gently grasped the blonde's hand, holding it in hers. She closed her eyes to heighten her hidden sense.

The silence in the room was calm and not terribly awkward or stifling. Instead, there was an air of excitement and wonder in it. As skeptical as she was, even Cynthia was curious as to see what would be revealed in both her reading and her sister's.

About two minutes of quiet had persisted until Marishka laughed in her throat. Her eyes still remained closed. Cyndi and Mandy gave their undivided attention to her.

"I see a baby," she announced. "Young lady, you're going to become a mother sometime in the future."

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF HOLY GOD DID YOU SAY?" Amanda screamed.

Neither Marishka or Cynthia was expecting this explosive exclamation. They both looked at her with astonished expressions.

The youngest female present had her jaw dropped almost to the floor. Her face almost looked white washed with shock and terror. She didn't draw her hand back from Marishka since she was so constricted by the prediction.

"Wait, I'm gonna get pregnant?" she raved. "When?"

"I'm sorry but I cannot pinpoint when exactly…" Marishka explained.

"Let me rephrase that: who the Hell knocked me up?" She gasped out loud. "Wait a minute! I bet I was raped! I don't have a boyfriend! Tell me who raped me so I can kill him when he sets out to steal my purity!"

"I don't sense anything evil like that which had led up to that. Please, calm yourself."

"What color eyes does the baby have? If you can tell me that, I have a pretty damn good idea of who the bastard is!"

"Oh, grow up," Cynthia hissed. "He won't rape you!"

"How in the Hell else am I gonna get pregnant, huh Cyndi? Your baby sister is gonna get raped and this is what you say to me?"

"Did it occur to you that maybe you'll find a man who you'll finally accept and then you get married and have kids with him later? For God's sake, she even said the future is unstable and changing! Take a chill pill!"

"I'm watching him, Cyndi. I'm telling you, he's got that crazy look in his eyes…"

"Whatever." Cyndi felt so embarrassed. She turned to Marishka. "Please forgive my sister. She's a bit of a drama queen."

"No, it's fine," the woman answered. "As long as she doesn't call me a liar, it's alright. I don't ever lie with what I see. It's my policy."

"What's my baby's gender?" Amanda was now morbidly curious. "Do you see the daddy anywhere? What's their hair and eye color?"

"I'm sorry but all I see is you smiling and you holding a baby in your arms. That's all I see, Miss. Do you want to continue?"

"Can I take a break for a few minutes? Cyndi, you go." Amanda drew her hand back, taking a deep breath. She shook her head, disbelieving that she was destined to become a mother. "I'm too young… I want to live free and die free!"

Cynthia extended her hand out. She couldn't believe she actually swallowed nervously due to Marishka's prediction of Amanda's future. More than anything else, she feared pessimistic and grim divinations for herself.

The diviner held her hand just as she had done to Amanda. She gasped.

"Well, I don't need to wait to see what surrounds you because I warmed up with your sister," she said. "As soon as I touched you, I got results."

"What do you see?" Cyndi slightly bit her lower lip. "Is it good? Is it bad?"

"I sense dishonesty. I sense strife. I see tears. I'm not really seeing anything like I've seen with Amanda but I can feel so many emotions. I also sense a great deal of hopelessness and uncertainty." She gripped her hand tighter. "I see a monster's eyes. They burn like the very flames of Hell itself." With a hand, she crossed herself and muttered a brief prayer in her native tongue. "I cannot hide this from you. You will face trials and tribulations. I sense that evil is extending its grip out to you."

"Do you see someone there besides you sensing all these feelings and raw emotions?"

She shook her head. Marishka seemed reluctant to tell Cynthia what more she could feel.

"I see no one," she replied. "I see nothing but darkness."

"Did I die?" Cyndi asked.

"No. But I feel that if you don't be careful, you will." She fell silent for a few moments. "I hear something… I hear a man calling your name. But his voice sounds so odd. It doesn't seem natural. And he doesn't sound very happy at all."

"Is this all?"

"Yes. I just warn you that you must be very aware of your life around you, young lady. If you don't be careful, I believe you might possibly lose your life. I don't know what exactly is going on but that's all I can say." She loosened her hold on Cynthia. "May God protect you."

(forty five minutes later)

The sisters were driving home now, departing from Marishka's home. Since they walked out the front door, neither of them said anything to each other. Their respective minds were focused on their particular fortunes. Despite the fact neither of them really believed in foresight or other magical practices, they sure seemed consumed by what happened earlier on. The silence was stifling and uncomfortable but both of them were obsessed with deciphering their unsettled but potential futures.

Cynthia was driving the car while Amanda was staring hollowly out her window. The blonde glanced over at her sister. She readied her lips, deciding the quiet had a sufficient and long-lived dynasty.

"Well, that just made my freaking life," Amanda remarked dourly. "I'm gonna be a mom. You know, I wasn't planning on having that happen. I like my freedom, thank you very much. Even after she read me again after you went, she still couldn't find out who my baby's daddy was. I think your boyfriend got turned into a man, he raped me and I got pregnant… Sorry."

"Blitzwing is not a rapist!" Cynthia said in a disgusted tone. "Yeah, he can be a pervert sometimes but he's decent enough to not rape someone even for a 'Con. And what are you whining about? My prediction was all about doom and gloom. I'm probably going to be dead before the year ends. I'd rather be pregnant than dead, that's all I can say."

"Yeah, that'd be nice if we could switch fortunes. I'm never going back to that lady again."

"Well, look… Didn't she say the future is always changing? Her predictions may merely be warnings if we don't be careful. You need to be abstinent. I need to have my wits about me. I don't believe in all that stuff but I'll admit she had me frightened a few times."

"I'm just going to tell myself it's not real. But I will start carrying a taser gun in my purse or a can of mace."

"I think I know what she meant with 'monster eyes': Blitzwing. Eyes that burn like Hell fire? Even I admit that his eyes are scary. I am just so relieved she didn't see him. She said she heard a man call for me and he didn't sound too enthused. She also said it wasn't natural which also makes me think it's a Transformer. But who it exactly is, I can only take a wild guess."

"Still, it's better than being pregnant…"

"Enough, okay? You insisted upon getting your fortune told and this is what you get. Personally, I'd rather not have mine told. I wasted thirty dollars for a woman to warn me I'm going to be miserable."

"Maybe it's a sign for you to break up with him."

Although she was driving and supposed to be focusing on the road, Cynthia still looked her sister in the eye and gave her a nasty stare. Amanda stared right back with a puzzled expression.

"Don't give me that look," Mandy said.

"Then don't tell me to break up with him," Cyndi said. "I love him."

"God, you're so weird! You need to get laid or something…"

"Sorry, I can't. Sex isn't everything. I can't believe you're even saying this to me considering the fact you're a virgin. I can't believe you went apeshit over a prophecy that's flimsy at best. That's immature and pathetic."

"When I can't find out who the baby daddy is, you can bet I will freak out and be as livid as I want!" She paused, remembering something from the fortune teller's house. "Did you see the big old crucifix hanging up on her wall with the rose wreath hanging around Jesus' head?"

"Yeah, it was creepy. Now let's just shut up and go home. I plan on sleeping long and hard tonight. Don't be surprised if I end up waking up because of a nightmare."

"If I hear a baby crying in my dreams, I'm done."

(Cooley residence)

Tristan could feel there was something wrong. She didn't know what it was but she knew something was amiss. From the moment she heard Amanda scream in horror at her fortune, her interest was piqued. Although she could easily sneak up and eavesdrop on the session, she preferred not to since she believed the blonde was too much of a drama queen.

The girl walked down the stairwell immediately after she heard the two customers leave. In fact, she didn't walk. Rather, she slid down the banister and landed on her feet.

"Marishka." She didn't call her 'Mom' like she did earlier. "Are you in the living room?"

"Yes, dear, I am," the Romanian woman replied. She sounded a little off. "I'm sitting in my chair."

"Alright, I'm coming in."

She entered the den, catching sight of Marishka instantly. The woman had her elbows digging into the coffee table. Her chin rested in the palm of her hand in a meditative pose. Tristan sat across from her, occupying the seat the sisters were in only minutes earlier.

"You look disturbed," Tristan noted. "I heard the screaming from upstairs. Was it a really bad reading?"

"The younger sister, Amanda, had a fairly happy reading," the diviner said. "I told her she was going to be a mother. She was less than pleased to hear this."

"What about the other one? What was her name?"

"Her name was Cynthia. Now, when I read her…" She paused. "I had nothing good to report to her. Listen to me well, child. When I read her, I saw evil eyes that burned like Hell itself. I saw tears and felt much strife. I don't think she will have a smooth life ahead of her if she does not be careful."

"'Evil eyes'? Like what?"

"They were colored red. There was nothing Human about them. A man was also calling out to her. He spoke English but his voice didn't sound Human either."

Tristan's gaze hardened.

"What do you propose is going on?" she asked Marishka. "I want your honest opinion."

"You know what I think, my dear," the older woman said. "Those mechanical demons from the stars are closing in on her. I don't know if she's aware of this or not."

"Did you see anything else? Are there any clues that stood out? Can you describe the man's voice?"

"All I recall was that he sounded unnatural, mechanical, if you will. But there was so much anger in his voice, I can't really describe it."

Tristan bit her lower lip. She ran her hand through her hair, pondering over what to make of the readings.

"What do you think I should do?" she resumed after thinking for a minute. "I'm not a bodyguard. That's not what I do."

"I don't advise immediate action, child," Marishka said, leaning back into the armchair. "The universe is always in motion and is in constant manipulation by my Lord. Anything is set to change. Perhaps those two girls will heed my warnings and do what they must to secure happier futures for themselves."

"I have a question though… What would Decepticons want with the brown haired girl?"

"I don't know. I didn't see that deeply."

"I will be more wary. I will take your divinations to heart and watch for anything to unfold."

Marishka grasped Tristan's hand. The girl's hand was cold.

"I've become fond of you since you came into my life four years ago, child," she said solemnly. "I still thank God everyday for your presence. If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead outside out that funeral home and then I'd be there in the same parlor with my husband."

Tristan looked down. Her blue eyes glazed over as she remembered the rainy November evening when she was forced to kill the bandits who had been poised to murder the freshly widowed woman. One blow was all it took to mangle and irreparably break their weak bodies. The cold rain had washed away the blood that would've pooled in the street and had eventually become runoff that would be swallowed up by the sewers. The unfortunate woman was shocked by just who or what her rescuer had been but she was eternally grateful for her intervention.

Marishka had offered to shelter her and give her a place to rest and adapt to a new life. At first, Tristan declined her kind request telling her that she the work she did was a lonely, heavy and potentially deadly burden. However, the Romanian's persistence and insistence at last convinced her. Besides, she also saw that a sanctuary would also help her adjust to her current situation and better understand the world around her. So, she had accepted the widow's offer.

Marishka passed her off as her adopted daughter and the two females resolved to move to Detroit at Tristan's insistence. For four years, they had lived quietly in the suburbs surrounding the city. Since the Autobots and Decepticons had emerged before the public eye some time after their settling in their new home, things had become interesting again for the duo.

"I am grateful for your kindness as you are thankful of my intervention, Marishka," the girl said. "Without your generosity, I'd be skulking in deserted factories and living in a cave."

"I've become fond of you," Marishka admitted. "I truly do see you as the child I've never had. I beg you to be smart and wise in your planning. Do not get caught up in your obsession to prove yourself." She sighed. "I worry for you."


	22. Phantoms and Priers

**Hey all! Thanks for the previous reviews! Okay, so I have some comments to make about this chapter. The italic section is a dream/flashback. That whole section is a bit about Blitzwing and Starscream's back story as youngsters. This isn't canon and I'm only doing this because not enough info was given about the canon characters' backgrounds in the show. In the flashback/dream, Blitzwing will only have one personality: Icy. In the 'Allspark Almanac', it's said Blackarachnia built him into a triple changer (that's how we have Hothead and Random) after the Great War. I intend to go follow with that information for the duration of the story. I've also included an explanation/theory of my own of how sparklings come to be in the TFA universe. Again, it's not canon so don't bite my head off. I'm also introducing another OC who will be mentioned a few more times throughout the story. I normally don't make Cybertronian OCs and this is the first seeker femme I've created. Hopefully she's not a Sue but she's not as important as some of the other OCs. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Happy New Years as well! :)**

Chapter 22 Phantoms and Priers

(…)

_At the moment, the only thing that mattered to Stormwraith were in fact two things, specifically, two little lifeforms. She was so in love with them both. They had meant the whole universe to her. Just looking into their big bright optics made her spark fizzle with warm, motherly pride. To the femme, it was such a complete and fulfilling sensation. It didn't matter that she had two sons and no daughters: she was happy with what she had been blessed with._

_Although she had heard whispers from both her fellow fliers and even from a few of her earthbound friends of civil unrest, she was unconcerned. Instead, she resolved to keep her sons close to her and her sparkmate in order to prepare for such strife. Stormwraith could be naïve at times but she was not stupid: especially when it came down to her family. As loving and compassionate as she could be at times, she had a horrid temper if rubbed the wrong way. She was more than happy and willing to use that hotheadedness against any forces that had threatened the sanctity and security of her loved ones._

_The beige and dark pink seeker femme smiled warmly at the sight that unfolded before her optics. Gently, her arms were folded across her chest. Her ruby colored optics had a patient and serene air to them that was almost Zen-like. She wanted to lean in the doorway that led into the sparklings' nursery but her downward facing wing struts forbade her to do so. But it was only a petty concern for her. _

_"Come on, just try!" the eldest little mech urged his baby brother. "You have wings, so use them!"_

_"I don't know…" The other miniature seeker said hesitantly. _

_"Look, Blitzy, it's so easy!" The gray and dark pink winged bot activated his thrusters that were nestled within the bottom of his stabilizing servos. He hovered in the air above his brother. "Come on! I promise I'll catch you if you start falling." He began to fly around the room. "It's so fun!"_

_"Starscream, it's not nice to taunt jour brozher like zat," Stormwraith said in her peculiar accent. "He's still young. Besides, jou have only got ze hang of flying a few solar cycles ago."_

_"But Mom..!"_

_"Don't give me jour 'buts' young mech." Blitzwing looked down at the ground with a raincloud over his helm. "See, look at vat jou've done!"_

_"Mommy, I didn't do anything!" Starscream cut off power to his thrusters, landing roughly on his rump. He rubbed it wistfully. There was still room for improvement. "I was just trying to make him fly! He'll love it!"_

_Stormwratih left her post in the doorway and walked over to her sons. She knelt down and picked up Blitzwing. The femme held her youngest creation close to her chest in a tender embrace. Then she kissed the top of his helm. The little Cybertronian smiled, resting the side of his helm against his mother's chest._

_"Don't get discouraged," Stormwraith told Blitzwing. "Jou still have lots of growing up to do."_

_"Vhen vill I be able to fly like Starscream, Mommy?" he asked, raising his helm up to look into her optics. "Vill I ever fly?"_

_"Of course, Blitzving. Jou're a seeker like jour fazher and I. It just takes time to master jour flying capabilities. Be patient."_

_"Vill I fly as vell as Starscream did ze first time?"_

_Stormwraith slightly clenched her teeth. She gazed back directly into Blitzwing's optics. In them, she could see a trace amount of fear and paranoia. It made her spark throb sickly to see such a negative reflection in his optics. To her, this was so unhealthy and unbecoming of him. However, she had a perfect understanding why he felt this way._

_His life first started out as a tiny spark of electricity that was nursed within his mother's chamber. Sometime during that development, his spark had almost fizzled out which would result in him never being born. Stormwraith was terribly shaken by nearly losing her second creation but she resolved to remain strong for the sake of the life within her. She saw that she couldn't allow herself to become weak and fearful: it might possibly hinder her second son's chances of living._

_When his spark had gestated and matured within her spark chamber, the femme and her sparkmate, Spitvenom, went to a sparkling development plant where the inorganic child's maturation would continue. A medic had carefully separated the infant's life force from his mother's spark and placed the fragile conscious within a development pod. From there, liquid metal would be siphoned into the pod so that the fluid would help to form a body around the spark. _

_The time from when he had been placed into the pod from the time when he went fully online had caused her much stress and worry. Stormwraith visited the nursery everyday to check up on his progress. She begged and prayed to Primus to allow him to make it through his development successfully. Even the joys of raising Starscream were eclipsed by her worry._

_However, her fears had been laid to rest when the long awaited day had arrived. A nurse had opened up the development pod and gently lifted the sparkling out. As soon as Stormwraith laid eyes on her son, she had fallen in love with him. She was concerned when she saw how tiny he was in comparison to Starscream when he went online. But the medical staff assured her that plenty of energon consumption and diligence would spike his growth and assure him of a healthy and strong spark which would in turn, guarantee him a long life._

_From the beginning, she had been so concerned about him. Stormwraith had done exactly as her instincts and the staff had advised. She doted over him protectively even to a point where she didn't trust Spitvenom to care for his youngest. She refused to let his spark sizzle out like a loose wire. She was a mother: his mother. Nothing was going to stop her doing what she could to ensure his survival._

_The fruits of her endeavors were being realized and Blitzwing grew stronger with each day that went past. Swiftly, he had proved to her that he was bright little mech (even more so than possibly his own brother. However, Starscream wielded more inherent natural talent and power than he did) with a potentially promising future ahead of himself. In fact, she pictured Blitzwing being a scientist and soldier like his father. _

_She needed to be strong and optimistic in order to make him feel the same way. The femme wasn't going to let him perish or toss him off to the side. She loved him._

_"I'm sure jou'll do vonderfully, Blitzy," she grinned, with a saintly and assuring smile spanning her gray faceplate. "Don't jou vorry about a zhing. Jou'll be flying in no time."_

_"Really?" Blitzwing smiled. "Really, Mommy? Vill I grow up to be big, fast and strong like Starscream vants to?"_

_"And smart. Don't forget smart."_

_"Hey!" Starscream tapped his little metal foot on the floor impatiently. "Aren't you forgetting someone? Love me!"_

_Stormwraith knelt down. Starscream clambered into her arms, joining Blitzwing in their mother's hold. She kissed both of them on their faceplates and held them close to her._

_"My sons," she said proudly. "Both of jou mean ze universe to me…"_

(…)

"It vas only a dream…"

Blitzwing sat up. He shook his helm, making sure he was snapped fully out of the nostalgic reverie. Sometimes, he almost forgot about his younger days. He seemed to particularly forget the times when he was a seeker and not the triple changer Blackarachnia reconstructed him to be.

"I zhought it vas actually real for a moment."

"No, she's been offline for countless stellar cycles," Hothead reminded Icy.

"I know. No need to remind me. Is she vas online, she'd straighten Starscream and I out vith both servos tied behind her back."

There was a shrill knock on his door. He flinched at the intensity of the noise, his systems not fully up to tune from the recharge.

"Vhat?" Hothead yelled across the room.

"Blitzwing, Lord Megatron requests our audience," Starscream said from the other side of the door. "From the brief amount of information he told me, I think we're going to have lots of fun today.

(February 12th: campus grounds – 11:30am )

"No, I'm alright, honestly."

"Cynthia, I merely worry for your safety." Helen Preston sounded earnest. "I heard about the fight in the city shortly after your father and I left Detroit. Personally, I think you should come back home to Greenvale after you get your degree. I don't like the thought of you living in that city with those mindless, murderous machines."

"Mom, I was in the middle of the attack and I lived…"

"YOU WHAT?"

Cyndi drew her cell phone away from her ear when Helen literally screeched. Her hearing in her left ear was scrambled and for a moment, she thought her eardrum broke.

"I'm alive!" Cynthia raised her voice. "Isn't that the important thing?"

"Oh my God!" Helen's tone was frantic and it didn't lower. "My baby almost died! You must come home this instant!"

"No, I'm not going back! I came here for a reason and I'm not going to leave until I get what I need done finished. Stop being so dramatic about it, Mom."

"Where are you now?"

"Downtown, it's where the campus is…"

"Get out of there now! They like to attack places with a bunch of people so they can cause more death and destruction!"

"Mom, you're acting ridiculous. I'll be fine. I'm smart."

"I'm serious, Cynthia… When you get your degree, get out of that place. You can be an ecologist at home."

"I'm going to work here in Detroit for my job. Erie's a big lake, Mom. It's not like the ponds back home."

"And what's up with you not being home with Amanda and Darien at midnight on some nights?"

"It's nothing, I just like to go out…"

"Oh my God, you're stripping aren't you?" Cynthia's jaw dropped. She laughed shortly, disbelieving her mother jumped to such a wild and false conclusion. "You're struggling to pay the rent for the apartment, the car and your tuition and you've been reduced to giving lap dances! Why don't you ask your father and I for more money? We'll do whatever we can to help you!"

"I am not a stripper!" A few of her fellow college goers glanced at Cynthia when she said that statement a little too loudly. She rolled her eyes and growled in annoyance. "Look, I have enough money. Mandy helps to pay for the apartment's rent. We get by… We hardly get by at times but we manage. All three of your kids are alright. No one's hustling for cash or whatever. We are fine, okay?"

"What are you doing out so late on some nights? Can I ask you that?"

"I need my privacy at times, that's all."

"Really, Cyndi?"

"Yes. Don't worry about it… Look, I'll call you back later tonight, alright. Don't tell Dad I was at downtown when the Decepticons attacked. He'll freak."

"Okay, baby. I'll call you. And you better be home tonight. I love you, honey."

"I love you too, Mom."

Helen hung up. Cyndi stuffed her phone into her purse. She took a seat on a bench that was set up right next to a snow-covered rhododendron bush. The woman leaned back into the bench and shut her eyes to indulge in a few moments of blackened out peace.

However, she should've realized that when she first met Blitzwing back in December, she'd never have peace of mind again. As far as she knew, she wasn't going to be thinking about ordinary things again. Thinking about the readings she and Amanda received from the Romanian mystic were all that she could focus on since she visited her over a week ago. She was not only engrossed with her specific fortune but with her sister's as well. Cynthia genuinely never foresaw her sister as motherly material due to her immature manners and epicurean life goals. The thought of the blonde being pregnant actually scared her.

"I'm surprised she would actually care it to full term and not abort," she thought to herself. "I'm definitely curious as to see who knocks her up. He must be quite the catch if she's going to let him go that high with her." Cyndi shook her head. "Ack! What am I thinking? It's nothing but parlor tricks. I really don't believe in psychics. That Madame Marishka's nothing more than a phony. If things actually start coming true, then I'll take it back… Then again, I think my reading is more likely to come true than Mandy's…" She swallowed hard and wrung her hands. "Please, God, don't let it come true. I don't want to die!"

She opened up her eyes and raised her head up to face the world around her. Fellow college students went about with their own business whether it was running at full speed to make it to class in time to catch their exam or chatting with some friends. They all seemed so ignorantly yet blissfully unaware of the fact they were in a city which was ground zero for gigantic robot rumbles. No one seemed to even acknowledge Cynthia and for that, she was grateful.

"Could anyone else possibly know besides Mandy and Darien about my little secret?" She bit her lower lip. Some paranoia caught hold of her. "Then again, if someone knew, I'd have a SWAT team break down the apartment door, cuff me and then strap me into a chair with some bright light over my head. That fortune teller would be the only other person to find anything out… As far as I know, she didn't see Blitzwing. Of course, she could be lying."

Cynthia decided to leave her seat. She got up quickly and began to walk out of the courtyard. Getting to the car and driving home was her primary objective. For the rest of the day she planned on getting some assignments done, maybe read a book (to take her mind off of things) and wait for her special someone to contact her. She was irked that she hadn't seen him for quite some time since he suggested that they should stay away from each other until Starscream became less curious. A little over a week was too long for her to not see her lovely Decepticon.

Cyndi bolted across the crosswalk, trying to make it to the other side of the street where the college parking lot was. A bus blared its horn at her and she almost jumped out of her skin in fright. With her heart racing like a rabbit's feet, she jogged through the rows of cars, scanning for her rental vehicle.

She tripped on her own foot, sending herself falling roughly onto the ground. The sensitive skin on her palms was brazed and began to bleed. The jean fabric centralizing around her left knee was torn open. Cynthia nearly fell flat on her face and would've broken her nose but her palms took the impact.

Cringing, she tried to prop herself up. Cynthia's whole body was wracked in pain. The most afflicted part of her body were her palms which stung with a burning bite.

"Smooth," she growled to herself.

"Ma'am, are you alright?"

Cynthia turned her head to the left, seeing a man's shoes. She titled her head upwards, gradually seeing more and more of the stranger. Within a few moments, she locked gazes with his hazel colored eyes.

"Jesus!" Cynthia nearly screamed. "Wes?"

"Cyndi-Baby!" Wes laughed. "Surprise!"

"What in the holy name of God are you doing here?"

He pulled her up onto her feet gently. Cynthia yanked herself from his grip when she regained balance. She looked at him sheer shock and astonishment. The brunette was at a complete loss for words and all she could do was gawk and stare at him like she was so accustomed to doing when she was caught off guard. Since she left Greenvale nearly two years earlier, he still looked the same to her.

He was almost six feet tall. His skin was slightly tanned but since there was less sunshine in the winter, his shade had faded and looked a little pale. The young woodsman was wearing a pair of tattered, faded light blue jeans and on his torso, he wore a dark brown sweatshirt. On top of that sweatshirt, he wore a thickly layered black winter jacket. The shoes he wore on his feet were black, heavy duty, outdoor work boots. Wes' short, thick black hair was tasseled but he didn't look too sloppy. On his chin, he bore slight black stubble.

"I decided to come see you," was his answer. "It's been awhile."

"Wes, did you not get the message?" she said, her anger peaking.

"Eh, easy, Cyndi. I did get the message. I know that you're not interested in me anymore. It's all cool and I'm not offended or anything. I flew over here to tell you that. I want us to start over as friends… Not only that, I heard that the giant robots are in this city and I want to see one before I die!"

"Okay, I really wish you would've informed me ahead of time. For me, now's not the best time to have a reunion."

"Why, what's going on?"

"Look…" She drew closer to him and lowered her voice. "It's not safe here."

"I knew that. You know that too and you still stay here. Say, did you ever meet one?"

"You can say that I have."

"Oh, neat, a close encounter of the third kind."

"Yeah, more like a close encounter of the insane kind."

"You don't have to worry about me bunking at your place either, Cyndi. I managed to get a room at a hotel."

"Look, as pleasant as your unexpected visit is, I'm afraid we're going to have to forgo on hanging out." She was quite sure she had chosen the appropriate words carefully. "I'm seeing someone. And something tells me he's of the very possessive and protective kind. If he sees you with me, it's not going to be pretty. He won't be afraid to knock you around."

Wes laughed.

"Hey, it's no big deal," he said. "We're just friends, remember? Can't you tell him that?"

"I can," she admitted. "But sometimes, he can jump to conclusions quickly. He's volatile."

"How'd you hook up with a dude like that? He sounds hardcore."

"You have no idea. It's a long friggin story." Her phone rang. "Give me a moment, Wes. Let me take this real quick and I'll be right back with you."

"No problem."

She answered her phone without looking at the caller ID.

"Hello?" she said.

"If jou're in downtown, get out now," Icy Blitzwing ordered her.

"What? I can barely hear you. The reception is awful. Look, I'm in the middle of something now, Blit-…" She stopped herself. Then she resumed. "What's going on?"

"I'm flying into Detroit now. If jou're in downtown, get out or jou vill risk being killed. Goodbye."

He cut the call. Cynthia drew her phone from her face and looked at in befuddlement.

"Boyfriend?" Wes asked.

"Um, I couldn't even tell who it was," Cynthia lied. "It was all distorted and difficult to hear."

"Why do you look so shaken up?"

Cyndi hardened her gaze at him. Wes shrugged.

"I can assure you, I'm cool," she said lowly.

"Just being friendly…" he mumbled.

She caught sight of an object in the air that was flying towards she and Wes. Her eyes widened when she clearly and positively identified who it was. For a few seconds, all she could do was stare.

"What're you looking at, Cyndi?" Wes said, noticing she was observing over his shoulder.

He turned around, seeing a purple and beige jet flying lower and lower as it got closer to them. Wes gasped and his pupils dilated.

"Get down!" she screamed.

She knocked him to the ground, landing right on top of him. Then she quickly rolled off, realizing it was such an unwise move to do right in front of Blitzwing. Cynthia looked upwards, seeing him advance swiftly upon them.

The triple changer flew merely fifty feet above them, the rumbling of his aerial vehicle mode filling their ears. He abandoned his jet mode and landed in the middle of the street where Cyndi had crossed a mere few minutes earlier. Blitzwing reared himself up to his full, imposing height with his helm held high as if he was a proud monarch. For a few seconds, Cynthia was so happy just to catch sight of him standing before her so confident and strongly. Thankfully, Wes failed to notice the hearts and stars in her eyes as she looked at Blitzwing.

"That is the single most coolest thing I have ever seen in my life!" Wes yelled with a huge grin on his face.

Unfortunately for the two young Humans, Blitzwing heard Wes' exclamation. His head turned to their direction, revealing to them that Hothead was the current dominant persona.

"Oh, shit," Cynthia and Wes said in unison.

"Don't move, maybe it's vision is based on movement like a T-Rex," Wes whispered.

"Not at all!" Cyndi replied harshly. "Wes, run! RUN!"

Blitzwing took a few steps closer, exiting the street and approaching the two organics. Cynthia defiantly held her ground, knowing he wouldn't hurt her. Wes was too enthralled and terrified at the same time to get his legs moving.

The bot knew exactly who he was looking at without a question. Undeniably, it was Cynthia. So naturally, she was going to be spared. When he saw this man next to her, he shifted his undivided attention to him.

Clearly, before his own optics, he could see there was this male standing next to her that wasn't Darien. Without thinking about any other possible scenarios, he saw a male who was intruding in on his femme. Primeval, masculine jealousy burned deep within his spark. All Blitzwing saw was someone who was trying to whisk Cynthia away from him. He couldn't allow that to happen. That was an unacceptable act and an undeniable death sentence. He didn't care if the rival suitor was Human or Cybertronian: they were going to die.

"Run, you idiot, run!" Cyndi had pure desperation in her voice. She knew exactly what was going to happen. "Get out!"

Blitzwing growled angrily at Wes. When he did that, that was when the man bolted. He didn't even notice that he left Cynthia behind.

He reached his servo out to Wes like an eagle's talons closing in on a rabbit.

"Leave him alone!" Cyndi ordered her wrathful sweetheart.

He ignored her completely and he snatched up the other organic. Wes screamed shrilly almost sounding like a little girl. Blitzwing drew his servo back to his body, bringing the Human up painfully close to his faceplate.

Random then overthrew Hothead.

"Naughty, naughty organic!" he chided. "Zis is not jour femme. She's mine and mine alone!" He laughed sinisterly. "I vill teach jou a lesson jou vill never forget!"

Wes fainted in his servo, going slack and limp like a wet towel. Blitzwing's glossa licked at his carnivorous maw, savoring the vengeance he had in store for the defenseless organic male.

"Let him go, now!" Cyndi's face was beet red. She was ready to start foaming at the mouth out of fury.

Blitzwing was well aware he needed to keep their relationship profile extremely low key in a place as public as downtown Detroit. But he refused to heartlessly disregard her. The pumpkin face winked at her and blew a kiss at her. Then he morphed into the jet and flew away, taking an unconscious Wes with him.

(…)

Starscream gazed down at the city, practically snarling at the organics below who were running around the streets in terror in his midst. Because he was a seeker, his eyesight was keener than most bots so he could track and identify his targets on the ground below. He used that superior sense to drink in the looks of deep terror on the faces of the helpless Humans. As much as he loathed them, he loved caused mayhem and fear before them.

He could hear the roar of a fellow jet coming up close off to his right. Starscream turned his head, seeing Blitzwing approaching. The triple changer assumed his robot form. When he did that, the air commander could see a Human male unconscious in his brother's servo.

"I stumbled across zis organic who has offended me greatly," Icy explained. He smiled darkly. "How do jou propose zat I kill him?"

"In whatever way you think best, little brother," Starscream answered, smiling and baring his fangs. "I'll let you have your fun and revenge and I'll go do as Megatron commanded: rough house the Autobots and cause some collateral damage. But don't take too long. I don't want to hog up all the fun and leave you high and dry."

If a Cybertronian male had mad advances on Cynthia, Blitzwing would've brutally and mercilessly pummeled them into submission. A well-placed kick in the aft as the offendor ran away would've been the perfect finishing touch. Even though Icy and Random weren't necessarily inclined to violent measures like Hothead, all three personas agreed that when it came down to shielding unavailable femmes from stupid and arrogant bots, a thorough beating wasn't out of the question at all. The current context was a bit different considering the femme and the intruder were both organics. However, Blitzwing was determined to have his revenge. He was going to make him suffer.

"Very vell," Icy nodded his helm approvingly. "Perhaps I vill rip his limbs out of his sockets zhen slice open his skull and see vhat's inside it."

"No, I vill squish him in my servo like a grape zhen set him on fire and let him burn until nozhing but ashes remain!" Hothead said.

"Or, maybe I vill engage in a little game of cat and mouse," Random snickered. "I alvays liked playing vith my prey before I kill zem. And I alvays admired ze vay cats disembowel zheir victims..."


	23. Grande Masquerade

**Thanks for the reviews/alerts/faves, everyone! Love ya guys :) So, this was a fun chapter to make. I also want to say that this chapter is a bit dark. There will be the death of an organic in this chapter and it will be graphic. The idea for the chapter name is inspired from a song/instrumental composed by my favorite band, Nox Arcana. I write many of my chapters to this music: it does wonders for my imagination. Without further ado, please enjoy and review!**

Chapter 23 _Grande Masquerade_

(…)

"Yes, my sveet?" Random sang into his comm as he flew across the city.

"You asshole!" Cynthia roared. "What is wrong with you?"

"I vas defending jou, zat's all," Icy explained. "I saw a strange man vith jou who vas not jour brozher."

"What do you think is going on? Do you think I'm cheating on you?"

"No, I don't believe jou'd betray me like zat. But a lovely young organic such as jourself is vulnerable to… unfitting suitors. Besides, I am fairly protective of jou and I see I can be a jealous bot."

"Oh, please. No one will even come close to me because I'm so defensive. Genius, that 'suitor' is my ex!"

There was silence on Blitzwing's line as he contemplated what she just told him. Then he remembered.

"Vait, I have Ves?" he said.

"Yes!" Cyndi said.

"All ze better for me to kill him!" Random concluded. "Don't vorry, Cynzhia, I vill remove him from jour life and jou vill never have to vorry about him again! Bye-bye!"

He shut his comm off, cutting Cyndi's line with him. She said a certain foul word, disbelieving things had come to this. Cynthia paced around in the parking lot, wondering what she could possibly do to convince Blitzwing to spare him. She didn't even know where he flew off to. She figured that she could follow the sounds of people screaming but she didn't want to end up getting herself killed in the process.

"I can't have Wes' blood on my hands even though Blitzwing is the one who actually killed him," she muttered. "As much as a douche he is, I can't let him kill him. He's decent enough to be spared… What the Hell can I do?"

The woman bit her thumb nail nervously. Furiously, she wracked her brain in an effort to try to cook up a plot or plan of some kind to save Wes and not have Blitzwing become angered or offended by her resistance to his killing. Nothing was coming to mind and with each second that went by, she knew the triple changer was placing more distance between her and himself. With each inch that was added on, Wes' chances of survival were dwindling chaotically. Her breathing grew heavier and more laboriously as long as she was starved of a solution.

"This can't come to this!" Cyndi told herself. Her fingers were visibly trembling as if she was suffering from the side effects of alcoholism. "Come on, Cyndi! You have a brain: use it!"

A godsend idea then struck her like a shark attack. For a few moments, she mulled over it. It was definitely bittersweet but as long as time slipped away, she was running out of options. She didn't want to resort to it but she saw that she'd have no choice… For the sake of her assistant, she hoped he'd be worthy enough to stand up to the task of facing Blitzwing.

"I'm not doing this because I hate you, Blitzwing," Cynthia thought, wishing she could speak telepathically to him. "You just left me no choice. I don't want him dead and you can't take a hint." She snorted. "Men… Kill, screw and dominate: that's all they know how to do. I'm gonna teach that three-faced punk a lesson!"

(…)

"Ratchet, try to clear the organics out of the immediate area!" Optimus instructed, gripping his axe tightly within his servos. His stare intensified as he focused on Starscream who was looking right back at him with unbridled arrogance. "You have nothing better to do than pick on Humans, Starscream?"

"I'm on it," the red and white bot said over his shoulder. He muttered secretly, displeased he was tasked with shepherding the native race again. "Why do I always get stuck with this..?"

"Oh, anything to kill the boredom, great Prime," the seeker sneered.

"Where'd Blitzwing fly off to? We picked up on his signature alongside yours when we were coming closer to where you were."

"He's off amusing himself… I believe he might be ripping out an organic's entrails at this very moment. He plucked a squishy right up off the ground and whisked him away."

Optimus was in no mood to receive this gruesome newsflash. He glanced over his shoulder, seeing Prowl, Bumblebee and Bulkhead who were standing by awaiting orders.

"Mind if Prowl and I take him, Boss Bot?" Bumblebee said competitively. "There's no way that flying refrigerator's getting away from us this time!"

The Prime merely nodded, granting the yellow bot's request. Prowl and Bumblebee transformed into their vehicles and raced down the street to begin their search for Blitzwing. Bulkhead took a few steps closer to Optimus, silently offering his superior his help in this standoff with Starscream.

"You actually sent two of your men off to save one measly organic?" Starscream taunted them. "This is one of the reasons why I hate you Autobots… You cater to the weak far too often. After Blitzwing's finished ripping apart the Human like a piranha, your two teammates are next!"

"Those two can hold their own well enough," Optimus stated calmly. "They're not completely defenseless like you make them out to be."

"Oh, so it's just you and Fatty now," Starscream chuckled. "And the old geezer is off babysitting the organics. I like where this is going…"

"Just what is Megatron up too?" Bulkhead questioned the seeker.

"To be honest, nothing really. Our orders were to trash the city and pick a fight with you and your friends. We can't grow fat and lazy doing nothing around our lair all the time. We have to get the energon running through our veins! Crushing a school filled with a bunch of young organics is an especial highlight of any raid we embark on."

Optimus wasn't going to deal with this anymore. The air commander was annoying him greatly and he couldn't allow him to talk any more about snuffing the lives out of the helpless native race. He readied his weapon and was poised to leap up into the air and strike him down with one mighty blow.

"I'll make you eat those words," was all Optimus said.

(…)

Wes' vision came back to him slowly. He felt like he was underwater since his vision was slightly distorted and his ears were ringing. His digits twitched to life and he moved about slowly. His mind was like white noise: absolutely nothing was going on in it.

Groggily, he sat up and rubbed his eyes. When his vision was restored to him fully, he nearly fainted a second time. Wes pulled his legs close to his body, holding himself in a tight posture.

He was situated atop a very tall cathedral. Before himself, he got a very nice panoramic view of Detroit. It almost would've been breathtakingly spectacular if he wasn't scared shitless. Towering, knob-studded spires reached high up into the sky off to his side. When he turned around, he found himself face-to-snout to a gargoyle that looked like a cross between a monkey and a lizard with bat wings. Wes nearly recoiled in horror, thinking the stone demon was alive. If he had done that, he would've fallen hundreds of feet to the ground below where he'd meet a not so happy ending.

"How'd I get up here?" he asked himself.

Wes's memory came back to him steadily as long as he remained conscious. It all came back to him like a swift avalanche. A giant flying robot had landed in the street right before his eyes. It took notice of him and he fled. Then he was effortlessly intercepted by the behemoth. Somehow, its face changed and it said some very unpleasant things to him. Wes remembered nothing after that.

"Oh, shit…" He refused to stand up. Vertigo was kicking in. "HELP ME!"

"Gothic architecture is very marvelous, isn't it?" a smooth voice said suddenly.

Wes looked directly above his head, seeing a long, blue face staring into his very soul. The metal titan was sitting atop the roof of the cathedral, gazing at him with cruel, detached observation. His body was locked in paralysis and all he could do was just stare back.

"I heard zat ze architects made zhese houses of vorship so grand and skyvard so zhey could reach out to zheir god," Blitzwing explained. "I zhink it's fascinating."

"T-t-th-that's c-c-c-cool…" Wes stuttered wildly. "I'm a Protestant but those Catholics make some awesome churches. Say, you don't mind putting me down..?"

"Jou're not going anyvhere!" Hothead yelled, punching a hole through the roof. "I'm gonna make jou suffer beyond belief!"

"I can't believe jou fainted!" Random laughed. "Jou big scaredy cat! I've met femmes tougher zhan jou!"

"I don't know what I did to piss you off!" Wes was literally crying. "Can I have a hint and maybe I can explain myself?"

"Jou have offended me greatly!" the red face said. "Jou vere standing next to ze femme!"

"'Femme'? What, a chick?"

"She's not just a chick, jou little punk!"

"She's my friend! I was just talking to her!"

"Hitting on her is more like it!"

Wes' throat was dry and he was sure that if he'd try to swallow, he'd think he was gulping down a thorny ball. His heart was racing like a hare across scorching sand. His pores were crying sweat even though it was a cold February day.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Wes was becoming increasingly desperate with each second that went by.

"Die," Hothead replied.

(…)

Cynthia dodged a stray car that had been tossed by an explosion. She dove into an alleyway to evade the flaming debris. Her face smacked right into a metal trash can in the process of diving to escape the object. The girl curled up for a moment, rubbing her cheek furiously.

"Dammit, son of a..!" she cursed.

She pulled her hand back, noticing there was blood on her palm. Noticing a piece of shattered glass on the ground, Cyndi looked at her reflection. Across her hurt cheek, there was a tiny gash which was oozing a little trickle of blood.

"Marvelous…"

"Bulkhead, get down!"

She was reminded of her mission when she heard the medic bot shout out to the big green mech. Grumbling, Cyndi got back up onto her feet and hustled out of the alley. When she exited that little niche of safety, she was nearly killed again when a lamppost was knocked over by Bulkhead when he himself was pushed aside by Starscream. All she did was quickly dash to her right and she was out of danger's way for the second.

Cynthia beheld an ensuing battle between three Autobots and one lonely Decepticon. She ducked behind a mailbox to watch the feud from under some cover. She knelt down lowly to make sure she wouldn't be spotted by Starscream in particular.

"That's the one," she reminded herself. "That's the robot Blitzwing said might be onto us." Cyndi shifted her eyes to the sky where he tauntingly hovered above Optimus, Bulkhead and Ratchet. "He looks like a total creep."

Bulkhead got back up onto his clumsy feet after being knocked down by the seeker's null ray. He quickly rejoined his other two comrades who stood together thinking of a way to incapacitate and defeat Starscream.

"Perhaps you should've kept the other by your side, Prime," Starscream smirked. "But then again, I'm sure the five of you would still be helpless against my obviously superior prowess."

"We've had worse odds," Optimus shot back a confident smile. "Our problem with you is your speed. Other than that, you're not all too challenging."

"I must say that when each of you are on your own, you're pitifully and embarrassingly weak. You're only a challenge when you attack en masse and there's only one poor Decepticon who must fend for himself. That is the only time when you pack hunters pose any threat!"

"Physically, you may be bigger and stronger," Ratchet admitted but with a snide tone, "but you 'Cons certainly lack in processor power."

"Oh-ho, is that so? Allow me to disprove that grand illusion."

The winged bot got the feeling he was being watched by someone with organic eyes. His premonition came true when he looked to the left. About a hundred feet behind the trio of Autobots, he spotted a single Human femme studying him with only the top half of her skull poking out from the cover of a blue mailbox. His metal lips curled back, showing off a toothy and sinister-looking smile that could curdle oil.

The three Autobots followed the direction to which his optics were looking. Like him, they too saw a visibly frazzled Cynthia. They froze in shock for a few moments, disbelieving the Human didn't have enough sense to run away in sheer horror at the spectacle before her.

"We Decepticons are quite crafty," Starscream spoke to the Autobots without looking away from Cynthia. "Even if the odds aren't stacked kindly against us, we will find a way to turn the tables!"

While the Autobots remained focused on the terrified young woman, Starscream made his move. He dove for her with his talon-like digits outstretched, eager to grasp her frame in his cold hold. His left servo balled up into a fist and he drew it back, looking like he was ready to launch a punch.

"MOVE!" the Earthling screamed at the top of her lungs.

Optimus spun around, only to have his faceplate make direct contact with Starscream's fist. The young Prime stumbled to the ground. Cynthia bolted before he could land right on top of her hiding spot.

Bulkhead's optics refused to look away from her. She looked so strikingly familiar, it was almost disturbing. He swore upon Primus himself that he was certain he saw her somewhere before. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but he knew he had come into proximity with her before.

Then suddenly…

"I know you!" he exclaimed. "I saved you from Blitzwing a month ago!"

When Bulkhead discovered this revelation, he leapt forward to body slam Starscream who was lunging forward to seize her. Unfortunately, his leap was ill timed and he fell face first onto the street.

Ratchet was torn between trying to aid Optimus who was lying curled up on the ground in pain or the Human who was racing away from the seeker. Those few seconds he spent pondering cost him his final decision.

Starscream snatched her up and promptly flew off with another organic hostage in tow.

(…)

Cynthia wailed like a newborn as she was plucked up off the ground. Fervently, she struggled to free herself from the grasp of the flier. She didn't care if it she was dropped a hundred or so feet to the ground below as long as she was out of his servos. The warnings she received from Blitzwing were still fresh in her mind and all she wanted was to escape to live another day.

"Shit, I wasn't supposed to get kidnapped by this guy!" she screamed within herself. "I was supposed to ask one of the Autobots help me save Wes! This can't get any worse!"

"Flailing will get you nowhere," the seeker crooned. "Hang tight, my dear."

"Put me down now!" Cyndi yelled.

"Or what? What can you possibly do?"

She didn't dare to say something like 'I'll call Blitzwing to save me and you'll sorely regret picking on me!'. That was amongst one of the last things she'd say to him. In fact, she didn't know what to say. Truthfully, she was frightened out of her mind. Cynthia genuinely had no idea how to react to this terrifyingly unwelcome scenario. In the end, all she could manage to do was stare back at him, her blue-gray eyes widened hugely.

"Yes, that's exactly what I thought," Starscream droned softly. "What can a squishy do?" He paused for a moment. His creepy smile didn't dissolve. "However, I know that I must never fully and so carelessly underestimate them."

"Please, let me go!" she was on the verge of tears, believing she was ready to perish. "What do you want with me?"

"I'll let you go within a moment or so. I want to introduce you to someone. But according to the fat, green Autobot you've met that certain someone before."

Some hope wormed its way into her heart. Maybe somehow, he could save her from Starscream and Wes as well. All she needed to do was keep her cool and not lead her captor on to believe she had connections to Blitzwing. She could only imagine the carnival of horror that would unfold if such a thing did happen. There was no way she could endanger his life: she'd have one Hell of a time trying to forgive herself if such a thing did happen.

"Blitzwing?" she asked, feigning her fear.

"Why, yes," the seeker answered. "You have every reason to be afraid, organic. He's the resident lunatic amongst my fellow Decepticons. He already has a member of your species captive and you get to die alongside him. Blitzwing has been studying your species during his past time and I'm sure he wouldn't mind having an extra organic to dissect."

"He wouldn't, you creep," Cynthia said inwardly. "He kisses me."

(…)

"HELP ME, PLEASE!"

There was a crowd that was accumulating around the front of the cathedral. Their eyes were glued to the roof of the house of worship, watching a terrifying scene take place. The bystanders looked on in morbid fascination as a large metal monster tortured a poor, defenseless young man. A few of the citizens were screaming into their cell phones, calling the police about the situation. Some others were using their camera and video recorder features on their phones so they could share this with their friends and family members who weren't at the scene. Amazingly, there were some who tried to divert the Decepticon's attention from the mortified soul so he could try to escape.

"Hey, nasty!" Benji jeered. He bent over and smacked his rump tauntingly. "Look at this! Kiss my friggin ass!"

"You!" a middle aged woman waved her arms in the air and jumped up and down. "You leave that poor boy alone! Why don't you pick on someone a little older?"

"This is gonna have a billion hits when I post this on YouTube!" a man said, recording the incident on his phone. "My God, I'll have so many subscribers…" He gazed up at a spire where Wes was climbing up in an effort to escape Blitzwing. "Hey, giant alien robot dude! Let me get a great face shot of you! I'll zoom in on it! It'll look awesome in HD!"

Blitzwing looked away from his prey at last. He was fully aware of the crowd that had gathered at the foot of the Gothic cathedral but he had ignored the flurry of activity occurring hundreds of feet below him. His patience was ebbing as long as the taunts and jeering prolonged and it was massively reducing the sadistic pleasure he was experiencing with harassing Wes. When he heard the one spectator's request to get a face shot of him for his video, he decided enough was enough. The triple changer figured he'd shut that throng up and finish off Wes to satiate his hunger for revenge.

"I bet zis vill look good in HD, von't it?" Hothead bellowed. He broke a gargoyle off from the stone facade. Glaring daggers at the man, he chucked the statue at him. "How's zis?"

The crowd dispersed, screaming shrilly upon seeing the gargoyle plummet to the ground where they were gathered. The man only held his phone out in front of his body with an enormous grin on his face. Sadly, his greed had cost him.

Benji placed his hands over his mouth, disbelieving he had actually seen a man get crushed by a gargoyle. His eyes were huge with disbelief, his brain having a hard time of processing the gory splatter that had gruesomely painted the sidewalk with the man's ground up entrails and blood. He looked at his clothes briefly, thankful he didn't get any spray from the casualty on his outfit. The boy had a very good idea of what he was going to be dreaming about for the next month.

"OH MY GOD!" He screeched. "Wait 'til I tell my boys about this! I just saw a bro get smashed by a statue!"

As the purple and beige mech wanted, the crowd fell into an unholy calm. Switching to Icy, he smirked smugly. He briefly evaluated the carnage his violent side created and actually approved of it. Normally, he was opposed to senseless violence unless if it was ordered by Megatron but his foul mood made him caused him to make an exception.

"Now, vhere vas I?" he wondered out loud. His optics turned to Wes who was sitting atop the very top of a spire. "Ah, yes… Jou do realize jou're at ze end of ze rope, organic? I've let jou try to escape but jou've trapped jourself."

"For the love of God and all that's holy," Wes hysterically pleaded, "put me down, please! I swear, I will never come back to this screwed up city! Is that what you want? I'll be back on the next plane to New York! Please, don't kill me!" His face was drenched in tears. The tears would've frozen onto his face if his body wasn't so overheated from the adrenaline pulsating through him. "I was just standing there minding my own business! I've done nothing!"

His captor's decision was made however. There was no mercy for him. Wes was competition and that needed to be dealt with. Cynthia didn't deserve this pitiful excuse for a male as a suitor. Arrogantly, Blitzwing saw himself as the perfect match for her and he had sought to enforce that belief of his.

"Idiot," Icy hissed, "jou are not suitable and it's as simple as zat."

"You said I was hitting on Cynthia…" Wes nearly slipped from the spire. His palms were bloody from grasping the rugged stone. "Why does it matter to you?"

Blitzwing's gaze intensified. Wes wet his lips, sensing things were about to get even more ugly than they already were.

"It's none of jour concern anymore, Ves," he said after a few seconds of silence. "I'm finished playing zhese games. I am going to be merciful and put jou out of jour misery, jou miserable Human."

His servo came in closer to him. Wes violently shook his head side to side, disbelieving that his life was coming to a close.

"NO!" he said almost defiantly. "I'm not dying like this! I'm only twenty three!"

"Sad for jou," Hothead bitterly remarked.

Blitzwing then halted his murderous advances when he could hear something approach from behind. He turned around, seeing Starscream flying over him in his robot mode. The triple changer noticed his servo was balled up as if something was in it. His optics focused and he felt like he was punched right in his spark chamber when he saw Cynthia in his servo.

"Oh, frag," he cursed softly.

Wes was ready to die as soon as he saw Starscream come closer. Although his eyesight wasn't as keen as Blitzwing's he too could see a familiar girl in the grasp of the other winged robot. With all his might, he struggled to hold onto a stone knob and not let vertigo, terror and suspense overcome him.

"I brought you a present," Starscream said, loosening his grip on Cynthia.

"Um, an organic femme?" Random said awkwardly, trying to disguise his shock. "Jou shouldn't have! Vhat should I do vith her?"

"Why snuff her life of course. I figured that since you like the femmes, you wouldn't mind playing with this one before you kill her."

"Oh my God, Cynthia!" Wes shrieked. "Not you too! Help me, please!"

"Shut up!" Hothead snapped at him. "I'll kill jou as soon as I'm done talking to him!" Then he faced Starscream. "Alright, I got an idea. Jou give me ze girl and jou can take care of zis rat."

"No, don't kill him!" Cynthia pleaded. She was still trying to maintain the charade she didn't have a relationship with Blitzwing. "Please, let him go! What did he do?"

"Ugh, can it, femme!" Starscream sneered, suddenly tightening his grip on her.

She gasped sharply in pain. It took an awful lot of great personal restraint for Blitzwing to not punch his brother in the face and wrench Cyndi from his claws.

"Hey, zat's my gift, isn't it?" he snapped at Starscream. "Don't kill her! She's mine!"

"Oh, you'll be in good servos, femme," the seeker said to Cynthia in a menacing voice. "He'll make your last moments the most terrifying memories any organic could ever comprehend…"

"Give her to me now!"

The second in command almost seemed taken aback by Blitzwing's stern command. He narrowed his optics at him. The younger of the two Decepticons was now becoming fiercely defensive of her. At this point, if he had to declare his love to save her, he'd do it.

"Did you just try to command me?" Starscream said calmly.

"Vhat of it?" Hothead growled. "Jou said she's my gift so she belongs to me! I vill do vhatever I please vith zis organic and I don't vant her in a billion pieces because jou like being an aft!"

"Oh, so you don't like it when I do this?"

Starscream applied pressure. Cynthia felt like an anaconda was crushing her ribcage. She could hear the vertebrae in her spine pop and she could've sworn she could feel her organs squish and slosh in her as her body was being compressed. A vein popped out on her forehead as long as the pressure remained constant.

"No, only I get to do zat!" Blitzwing vented. "I don't take jour spoils from jou!"

"I think I changed my mind," Starscream said rather carelessly. "I like the way she screams when she experiences pain."

"Starscream, zat Human is not vorth jour time," Icy tried to dissuade him. "Who vill take care of ze Autobots? Let me deal vith zhese organics here."

"It's your turn to grapple with those five fools. Your playtime with the fleshlings ran out. I weakened enough them enough to the point where you should be able to offline them rather easily… Blitzwing, do I sense you trying to deceive me in some way?"

"Nonsense. Just give me ze girl and I vill dispose of zhem both and ve can finish off ze Autobots."

"You seem like you're losing your composure, Blitzy…"

"I'm fine!" He gritted his teeth. "Don't play jour games vith me, Starscream! I am in no mood for it!"

"Even your level-headed side seems to be coming undone. That never happens unless you're under a great amount of pressure and conflict. What's wrong? Tell me. You can talk to me."

"SHUT UP!" Hothead thundered.

Without warning, Blitzwing tackled Starscream. The two jets fell to the ground below with Cynthia still amongst them in Starscream's fist. Switching to Random, Blitzwing bit down on his comrade's wrist, digging his teeth into him. Starscream wailed in pain and released Cyndi just as the three-faced mech planned. She was only airborne for a moment before she was in the hold of another Cybertronian. This time, she was with one who posed no threat to her.

"Oh, thank God," Cyndi nearly wept. She retreated into his servo as they continued their fall. "Thank you, Blitzwing."

He said nothing to her in return for fear Starscream would hear. Blitzwing merely kept his optics locked onto the air commander who looked back at him with a furious and hellish gaze.

"Zat's vhat jou get," he thought. "Jou squish my femme, I bite jour wrist."

With a loud crash and a large crater to match, Starscream fell onto the asphalt road below. Blitzwing joined him moments later, landing on his metal feet. The spectators scattered as soon as they saw the purple jet lunge for the dark pink one and by the time their descent ended, they were all two hundred feet away from the belligerent bots.

Blitzwing unfolded his servo, exposing Cynthia to the world. Now that he had managed to liberate her from Starscream, he didn't know what to do. He couldn't just let her walk off unharmed so the citizens and Starscream himself wouldn't conceive immediate suspicions about the two. There was no way he was really going to kill her either. He could fly away with her, drop her off at a safe place and then fly back to the base to be ready to confront Megatron who would undoubtedly demand an answer from him regarding what happened.

"Blitzwing, get out of here!" she whispered harshly. "Drop me and go!"

Still, he didn't speak to her. He only observed Starscream who was now currently sitting down, clutching his bleeding wrist. Pink energon gushed out and it looked like it was clearly painful.

"YOU!" Starscream said with pure malice in his voice. "How dare you! I will rip your spark out for that!"

"Bring it on, Pretty Bot!" Hothead accepted the challenge.

"Hold it!" a new, Cybertronian voice spoke.

Cynthia, Blitzwing and Starscream turned their heads to the left, seeing all five of the Autobots conglomerated together. Each of them were poised to fight the two Decepticon brothers at a moment's notice. They all wore serious and brave expressions on their faceplates.

"Drop the girl," the owner of the voice, Optimus, commanded. "If you release her without injury, we will let you both go." He frowned heavily. "You won't be so lucky next time."

"And don't try anything sly," Bumblebee added.

Blitzwing smirked without a care. Icy took over and glanced over his shoulder, locking optics with a livid Starscream.

"Kill that roach!" he ordered.

"It's just a bug, Starscream," he said innocently. "If ze Autobots vant it back, I can oblige. Getting pummeled by zem is not vorth it for me at zis point. Zhere are billions more to squish anyvay."

To add insult to injury, Blitzwing knelt to the ground, bringing his servo to street level. Cynthia jumped out of his hand, relieved that this was finally coming to a close.

"Ugh, I will make you suffer for this!" the seeker raved.

He activated his vehicle mode and promptly fled the scene, still bleeding energon.

"Bye, bye, Doll Face!" Random waved to Cynthia.

The Autobots recoiled at this term of endearment but shrugged it off, knowing that Blitzwing was quite the loon. The triple changer grinned mischievously at them, amused with the knowledge they were completely oblivious to the nature of the bond he estalished with the Human. It tickled him that in all actuality, he and Cynthia were manipulating this situation passively. Their acting had been pulled off quite well in his opinion.

"Oh, great," Bumblebee rolled his optics. "The last thing the girl needs is Blitzwing flirting with her."

"Shut up, bug," Hothead said. "Prime, just as jou said ve von't be lucky ze next time ve meet, neizher vill jou!"

"Vatch jourself, little femme," Icy warned Cynthia almost as if she was his pet. "Zis is no place for a lady."

"Creep," Bulkhead said sourly.

Blitzwing only laughed. Following Starscream's suite, he turned into the jet and sped off after him. The Autobots watched him fly away, slightly confused by what had just happened.

"Miss, are you alright?" Prowl approached Cynthia. He knelt down to get a closer look at her. "You've had quite the scare."

"I'm alive," she said, clearly sounding stressed out. "I'm alive and that's all that matters."

"PUT ME ON THE GROUND, NOW!" Wes screamed from his post on his spire.

"Oh, wow," Bulkhead said, turning his optics up to the spire. "I bet this was the worst day of his life."

* * *

><p><strong>The kid named Benji who was at the cathedral is Darien's friend. He was in some earlier chapters but I figured I ought to remind you since he's an obscure character. He'll be showing up next chapter too. <strong>


	24. Excuses

**Hey guys :) thanks for the love as always! Alright, so, I wasn't too happy with the last chapter. Hopefully, this one will turn out better regarding grammar, construction, flow, etc. than chapter 23. Also, let me know how I'm doing: I've felt like that the quality of my work has been rather dull to say the least lately. I'm always trying to improve my work. I'm working on Chapter 30 right now so I will be updating probably once every four or five days. I've been on a roll! So please enjoy the update!**

Chapter 24 Excuses

(Decepticon lair – 12:45pm)

Lugnut rushed into Megatron's throne room as quickly as his stocky, cumbersome legs could carry him. He beheld the Decepticon lord in his usual spot in his seat of prestige. Although he would've showed much greater reverence in approaching him, he had to make an exception at this point in time. All he knew was that he had to seek his leader's guidance.

Reminding himself to be ever respectful and religiously devoted, the husky metal Cyclops fell to his knees. He bowed deeply to his liege.

"Master, forgive my unworthy entrance," he said quickly. "But there is an issue that needs your glorious intervention."

As usual, Megatron wasn't amused. He rolled his optics and unfolded his servos. The silver bot leaned forward in his chair.

"What is it, Lugnut?" he questioned, sounding unenthused and tired. "Just tell it to me straight out."

"Starscream and Blitzwing are fighting!" Lugnut explained. "I heard a loud explosion in the woods surrounding our home and I saw the two glitch heads squabbling with each other! I tried to break up the fight but Blitzwing shot fire at me! They will not stop and I fear that if they continue, the Autobots will find out where our lair is!"

Megatron was curious. He had sent them out to wreak some havoc at downtown Detroit a little over an hour earlier and they were at his doorstep already. Instantly, he got a feeling in his metal innards that something had went wrong to have them return so soon and have them go at each other like rutting elk.

"Why do I have the feeling I'm going to discipline them both as if they were my own sparklings?" he grumbled.

"Master, what shall you do?" Lugnut pressed.

The head Decepticon rose out of his throne. He cracked the cables in his neck and flexed his arms. There was a glint in his ruby optics that exuded cruel serenity. He didn't seem phased in the least bit regarding Lugnut's news. In fact, it seemed as if it was merely child's play.

"I'm going to remind them that as long as I am still online, I will not let my men feud with each other like a bunch of Earth dogs," Megatron stated. "If they want to act like dogs, I will treat them like dogs."

(…)

Blitzwing screamed in agony as Starscream's sharp digits slashed his face. He reeled away in excruciating pain, clutching the right side of his faceplate. Energon seeped through his fingers as long as the wound remained opened. Despite the fact Hothead had been the personality that was dealt these unsightly marks upon his face, he whimpered quietly.

"Oh, do you have a big boo-boo?" Starscream taunted. "Does Mother have to come back from the dead and kiss it to make it better?"

"Jou'll have an even bigger boo-boo vhen I get a hold of jou, Starscream!" Random said wildly. "I'm going to rip jour arm off and beat jou vith it! Zhen vhen I'm done vith it, I'm gonna eat it like a candy cane!"

Under one's first impression, one wouldn't think of Random as a fighter. A jokester, definitely, but not a warrior. However, given the right conditions, that impression could be shattered to atoms within a moment. When backed into a corner, that childish demeanor was gone. All that was left was an unbridled and ferocious animal who was determined to kill in the bloodiest, bestial and most gruesome ways possible.

Screeching in fury and energon-lust, Blitzwing dove for Starscream. He rammed into him brutally, knocking him to the snow covered earth. The triple changer literally sat on top of the seeker, pinning him to the ground. With his servos, he grasped Starscream by his wrists, forbidding him to shoot him in defense with his null rays.

"I decided to do somezhing else," Random said. "I've never chewed anozher bot's helm off before… Now's ze perfect opportunity!"

Like a ruthless and famished vampire, he opened up his maw and bit down on Starscream's neck. The sound of cables being sliced, metal being crunched and energon bubbling filled the air. Starscream's legs kicked furiously in an attempt to somehow free himself from this death trap.

"You fragging monster!" Starscream loudly cursed. "Get off of me!"

Blitzwing drew his helm back for a moment. Random's glossa licked at his energon covered teeth, savoring the lust for slaughter and domination that had consumed him. He chuckled darkly, satisfied with the new bite mark he had given his brother.

"Hold still, Starscream, it vill be over soon enough!" he laughed.

When he drew his face in closer to worsen the wound, Starscream reared his helm back. With all his might, he slammed his helm against Blitzwing's, delivering his attacker a dizzying head butt. Starscream's vision blurred for a moment but with a quick shake of his cranium, the sensation faded.

Blitzwing shot up onto his inorganic feet to distance himself from his opponent. His stabilizing servos were shifty and his sense of balance was terribly off. He groaned like a zombie.

"I don't like ze dizziness!" he said, sounding like he was going to be sick.

"Well, then, allow me to help you cure you of that problem permanently!" Starscream said, rubbing the bite mark on his neck.

Before the second in command could resume the attack, he felt someone grab him gruffly by the back of his neck. He was startled by this but he could barely react in enough time. He saw a large servo grab Blitzwing in the exact same way. All of a sudden, the two bickering bots slammed into each other by the guidance of the silvery servos. The both of them yelped in pain.

"You filthy mongrels," Megatron said in a disgusted and displeased tone.

Then he cast aside Starscream and Blitzwing as if they were merely toys. The two subordinate 'Cons were separated from each other and only their lord stood between them as their sole yet extremely efficient barrier. However, the both of them continued to glare at each other from the distance.

"We are not wolves!" Megatron decreed. "For spark's sake, we are Decepticons! We are higher life forms than any petty Earth creature!"

"Megatron, vhy can't I finish him off?" Hothead pouted. "I vas vinning!"

"Don't make me literally slap some sense into you, Blitzwing!" He raised his servo up as if he was ready to backhand him like a pimp. "I will do it!"

Starscream snickered. This didn't go unnoticed by Megatron. His helm snapped to the seeker's direction, staring him down challengingly. The lesser 'Con saw it was wisest to not goad his lord. Grumbling, he lowered his helm in a submissive manner.

"You're no exception, Starscream." After observing him for a few seconds, Megatron turned his attention back to Blitzwing. "I dare one of you to come at the other. Do it and see what happens."

The two of them only looked back at Megatron as if they were abused puppies. Both of them knew to not even dare raise a servo in violence to their brother or else their leader would rip it off. Blitzwing's tense expression softened and Icy replaced Hothead. Starscream rubbed his neck wound and pulled his servo back, seeing pink blood staining his palm.

"I'm done," Blitzwing announced, "I vill fight no more vith jou, Starscream."

"Go to the Pit," the opponent lashed out. "This will leave an ugly scar."

"I've suffered cosmetic blows as vell, so stop vhining."

"What is the meaning of all this mutiny?" Lugnut finally spoke up. He was too engrossed with the way his master restored order to interfere in the matter directly. "There cannot be conflict within our ranks unless our master has sanctioned it."

"Yes, explain yourselves," Megatron nodded. "Perhaps I can solve it for you without you two murdering each other. I need my warriors in decent condition."

"Blitzwing threw a temper tantrum in the city when I wouldn't give him an organic femme," said Starscream. "He bit my wrist and took her from me. Then he decided to be an aft and he let her go when the Autobots surrounded us!"

Instinctively, Blitzwing's digits dug into the ground. He could feel his spark pulsate a little more rapidly. Some anxiety gripped him but he refused to allow it be visible especially to Megatron. All he planned on doing was denying, especially if it came down to the girl's identity and possible connection to him. There was no way his leader could learn about what had been going on behind him for the past month.

"Starscream gave ze femme to me as a gift," Icy explained. "I plucked up a young organic male from ze streets because he had offended me. I had plans on killing him and zhen he showed up by my side vith ze femme. Zhen he decided to not give her over to me. My ozher sides veren't pleased vith his little games and neziher vas I for zat matter, my lord. I von't deny vhat I have done."

Megatron was interested in the origin of this bloody duel. His brow plate rose and he placed a servo thoughtfully on his chin. The despot's optics averted from Blitzwing's form for a few seconds, looking at the snow on the ground. Then, he engaged contact with him again.

"That's quite an odd tale," he said. "You let the girl go so freely?"

"I did not vant to risk injury from ze Autobots," Blitzwing went on. "Ze five of zem vere zhere standing right before Starscream and I. I vas in no mood to be ripped apart by ze five of zem at once vhen I could let ze Human go freely."

"Hmm. Well, I do see some reason in your explanation. You and Starscream were left vulnerable to them?"

"Yes," the seeker snapped, "we got distracted and neither of us knew the Autobots had closed in on us. We had to flee! I'm sure we looked like total buffoons thanks to Blitzwing!"

"I'm confused about one tiny detail though. Why would Starscream give you a fleshling as a gift?"

"Because I enjoy killing zem," Hothead answered. "I crushed an organic vith a statue." The gruesome scene played back in his processor. He didn't think Humans could be so full of blood and organs. "It vas so satisfying."

Naturally, Megatron smiled at Blitzwing's news. So far, he found himself on Blitzwing's side of the board in this feud between him and Starscream. Personally, he believed the seeker had it coming to him and he knew it would only be a matter of time before the triple changer couldn't take Starscream anymore.

"It is dishonorable to deny your comrade of a kill, Starscream," Megatron scolded. "To give the organic to Blitzwing and then abruptly take it back is offensive. If you had just given the femme to him, he wouldn't be chewing on your neck."

"Oh, you should've seen him when I was trying to crush the Human in my servo," Starscream purred in his velvety voice. "He was so mad…"

"Because jou vere robbing my kill!" Blitzwing pointed a finger at him.

"Enough, younglings," Megatron said belittlingly. "It's over and I want you both to cease this foolish banter. I order the two of you to go to your respective quarters and isolate yourselves from one another so that your hot energon will be cooled for now. Save your fury for the Autobots and not for each other. I don't want some of my best warriors battered and weakened." Both Blitzwing and Starscream grinned when Megatron complimented them. Megatron noticed that. "If the hostilities don't cease, I will see to it that the two of you are both swiftly and effectively punished. In my optics, you're both equal. I do not favor one over the other."

"Poor Starscream," Icy clicked his glossa. "All zhese stellar cycles of climbing jour vay up ze pillar of power and jou're somehow my equal…" He chuckled. "Zat must be hard to svallow."

"Did I tell you to speak, you three faced wretch?" Megatron turned on Blitzwing.

"Uh, n-no! Forgive me, my lord."

Now it was Starscream's turn to laugh. Although he was second in command of the Decepticon forces, Megatron was still keen on reminding him that he was still below him on the totem pole. Balling his servo into a fist, he punched him in the side of his helm. The seeker collapsed onto the snow, groaning lowly.

Blitzwing slightly cringed at the sight. There were times when he deplored Starscream but he had never forgotten he was his best friend once upon a time. When Megatron had risen thanks to the power of the key, Blitzwing was almost certain he would kill Starscream. But when the overlord decided to spare his underling, the triple changer was happy and relieved. He never told Starscream about his feelings regarding that though.

"Both of you get out of my sight," the Decepticon leader ordered. "Lugnut, escort them to their quarters and make sure they do not try to claw each other's sparks out behind my back. I highly doubt they'll do that but I want to be sure. You have my permission to use deadly force if necessary to quell the fight."

"As you command, oh grand and glorious Megatron!" Lugnut raved fanatically.

The hefty robot approached his three companions after he watched everything from afar. Starscream managed to hoist himself up onto his stabilizing servos and he idly walked over to the mine. Blitzwing decided to not follow him too closely and rather chose to have some distance placed between him and the other jet.

"Get up," Lugnut said. "Megatron commands!"

"I'm going," Blitzwing said lowly.

"Wait a moment," Megatron suddenly spoke.

His heavy servo rested on Blitzwing's shoulder. Megatron spun him around, forcing his soldier to look him in the optic.

"Yes, Megatron?" Blitzwing replied respectfully.

"Was Starscream telling the truth?" his leader asked.

"Yes, he has been telling nozhing but ze truth. I vould've told jou earlier if he vas lying about vhat happened today."

"Very well. That's all I need to know. You're dismissed."

(downtown – 1:00pm)

Cynthia watched as the paramedics scraped up what they could of the squashed videographer. She shook her head disdainfully, disappointed with what Blitzwing had done. To a certain extent, she felt as if she was somehow responsible for the man's death even though it was in all actuality, his own fault. The carnage of the scene eventually made her look away since she felt like she was going to vomit up her already digested breakfast.

In the back of an ambulance, Wes was sitting on a gurney as a medic wrapped bandages around his bloodied palms. The two appeared to be talking since their mouths were moving but Cynthia couldn't really hear what they were saying. Curious, she walked over to the ambulance to make sure he was alright.

"Wes," she said.

"Cyndi, you okay?" he asked. "Do you need this gentleman to clean up your cut after he's done with me?"

"I'll live."

"Are you sure, ma'am?" The medic turned his head to Cynthia. "It's no trouble at all."

"No, thank you. He needs the attention. All I have is this little cut which I gave myself. Those robots actually didn't really hurt me." That was a lie. "I'm surprised you're alright."

"Bullshit, that one robot with the huge chin was squishing you in his hand like a squeaky doll," Wes interjected. "I thought your eyes were going to pop out of your head."

The medic refused to look away from Cyndi. She shook her head, silently denying herself of treatment once more. He then turned away from her and finished bandaging Wes' hands.

"Alright, sir, take it easy for a week," he instructed. "You were shaking like a leaf when you came down from the top of the cathedral. Thank goodness we were able to sedate you despite the fact you were flailing like a fish out of water. Wear these bandages for a few days and make sure you keep them clean as they scab. The scratches weren't deep but you can't be too sure."

"Thanks, buddy," Wes said gratefully.

"You're welcome. Consider yourself extremely lucky. The morgues sometimes fill up when those Decepticons come into town."

Cynthia had to look away for a moment. Nervously, her stomach churned and she felt as if some invisible hand was tugging on her heart. Before she had met Blitzwing, she mainly heard about the Decepticon's marauding in the city via the news. She had heard mainly that people within their vicinity had sustained injuries like bruises and cuts and the more serious injuries commonly consisted of broken limbs or digits. The threat of death was there but she didn't really recall hearing about it in the media. Partially, she blamed herself for selective memory on that part since she believed she chose to forget about the casualties. How could one kiss an extraterrestrial murderer anyway with that knowledge hovering in the back of her mind?

She stepped away from ambulance with Wes following close behind. For a moment, she almost forgot he was literally standing right beside her.

"Cyndi, can we talk for a moment?" he said softly.

"About what?" Cyndi replied rather monotonously.

"Today. I have to admit I'm fairly terrified right now."

"Wes, we got abducted but then we got freed. That's what happened today. Let's be thankful we weren't turned into a pulpy pancake like that man."

"Cyndi, weren't you frightened at all?"

"Yes! Wes, I was horrified! I thought I was going to die!"

Wes grabbed her wrist. He drew her closer to him. Immediately, she had a good feeling of where this was going.

"That three faced robot told me he was going to kill me because he thought I was unworthy," the young man whispered to her. "I got the distinct feeling he didn't want me near you. He even thought I was hitting on you…" Some fear swept over his visage. "For God's sake, he knows my name! Cyndi, how does he know my name?"

"I can't answer that," she lied.

"I think he was somehow jealous like I was trying to steal you from him. That's the impression I was getting. I think he was trying to kill me because he saw me as competition. Cynthia, this may sound crazy but I think he has a little crush on you."

She pushed herself away from Wes.

"You're insane for even coming up with a suggestion like that," she barked.

"Think about it," he urged her. "He even got really angry when the other flying robot started to crush you. He tackled him and he freed you. I saw everything, Cynthia. Then he let you go without a scratch on you. Although the gray one said you were a gift to Three Face, he didn't even hurt you. I don't know exactly what's going on but I smell something fishy. Cyndi, if I were you, I'd take Mandy and Darien and move out of this city. It's too dangerous here." He sighed. "I know I just got here this morning but I'm leaving as soon as I'm done talking with you. I can't risk this lunacy all over again. I don't think I could mentally take it all."

"Well, if the heats too much, get out of the kitchen. It's as simple as that, Wes. I am not leaving this city. My business is not finished yet. In fact, I would encourage you to leave. This city is for the strong, brave and reckless. You risk death everyday you live here."

"I worry about you as a friend, Cynthia. I'll be honest and come clean with my feelings… I feel the same way you feel about me. I'm alright with keeping it like that. As a friend, please promise me you will take care of yourself."

Cynthia just wanted him to go back home to Greenvale. She just wanted to be left alone for a few hours. Socializing was the last thing on her list of things to do for the day.

"I promise, Wesley Larkson," she said solemnly. "I will watch myself and I will be alright. Don't worry about me. Just stay away from this city. Let me come to you when I'm finished with my business here."

Wes let go of her wrist. He hugged her.

"Take care, Cynthia," he said. "I'm just worried because that robot seems like he's stalking you or something. Watch your back. Don't be afraid to come home if you have to. Bye."

"Goodbye," Cyndi said.

He let go of her and Wes went on his way. The hazel eyed male hailed a taxi and opened up the backdoor. Then he got in and requested the cab driver to transport him to his hotel to collect his belongings. The yellow car drove off a few moments later.

Cynthia watched the taxi cab travel down the street until it rounded a corner. Exhaling in relief she cradled her head in her hands. She shook her cranium, disbelieving the events that had transpired in the past two hours.

"Hey, Cyndi!"

She rolled her eyes before she turned around to face the source of the new voice. When she did spin around, Cynthia recognized the teenage boy who was rushing up to her side. His black, red streaked hair stood out like a blaringly sore thumb to her. His deep brown eyes were familiar to her as well.

"Benji?" she questioned. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"Eh, you remembered me!" he flashed a debonair smile.

"Of course. You're Darien's buddy."

"Yup. I played hooky today. I wasn't quite ready for that trigonometry test. Hey-eh, pretty gnarly stuff today, huh?"

"My God, it was terrifying! What's wrong with you?"

"I love getting a high off being chased around while 'Cons destroy the city. I picked the perfect day to skip, huh?"

"You're a very disturbed kid…"

"How'd it feel getting kidnapped by robots? And, oh my God, it was righteous when that big purple dude let you go! Did you do a Jedi mind trick on him? Darien would love to learn that from you if you did do that! He'd finally win at something for once!"

"Excuse me, Ms. Preston."

Cynthia was becoming incensed with all this attention being thrust upon her. She was ready to lash out at this new interruption. Luckily for her, it was a good thing that she made eye contact with this "person".

"Hey, I'm out," said Benji. He looked at the red and white Autobot. "I'll seeya around, Cyndi. Don't be trippin'!"

Before she could reciprocate the parting words to Benji, the boy ran off. Now, she stood before one of the Autobots.

"Can I help you?" she asked, making sure she sounded polite despite the fact she was annoyed.

"If I recall correctly, you were the one Blitzwing and Starscream were squabbling over earlier," said Ratchet.

"Oh, yes. That was quite the experience. I hope it never happens again…"

"The organic medic who was tending to your friend earlier said you refused medical attention."

"Yes, I'm alright. The scratch I have on my face was my own doing by accident. I thank you for your kind concern though."

"Miss, is that alright if my fellow Autobots and I ask you some questions?"

Cyndi began to sweat. Involuntarily, her muscles tightened. Her heart beat a little quicker.

"I see no harm in it," she said, trying to maintain the guise she was so foolishly and maidenly innocent. "I'm available to answer any questions you may have for me."

"Alright," Ratchet said, not wearing a smile. "Follow me, please."

(…)

Cynthia felt like she was at the gates of Heaven itself, waiting to be let in by the archangels. There, she stood in front of the other four Autobots Ratchet had led her to. More than anything else, she felt intimidated and she felt extremely tense. She resolved to remain on high alert so that none of them could suspect the dark secret she kept hidden from them, her own protectors. The woman felt it was so odd because she was fearful before them and she practically felt no terror in Blitzwing's presence (anymore at least).

"Ms. Preston, I presume," Optimus addressed.

"Uh, yes…" she said. "That's me. I'm Cynthia Preston."

"I'm sorry to chew up some of your time but my comrades and I just wanted to ask you some questions regarding the Decepticons."

"No, it's no trouble at all. I can try to answer whatever questions you have."

"My friend, Bulkhead," Bulkhead nodded at Cyndi in acknowledgment when Optimus mentioned him, "said that a month ago, he saved you from Blitzwing when the Decepticons attacked Detroit."

"Yes, he most certainly did. I'm so lucky…"

"Shortly after your brush with Blitzwing in the city, your car ran off the road and you had disappeared for over twenty four hours. You woke up in the wooded lot behind your apartment complex with no recollection of how you got there. And today, you were being fought over by Starscream and Blitzwing…"

Cynthia absolutely disliked where this was going. Her conscious was beginning to torture her again. Once more, she had the urge to obey the angel that sat on her shoulder. The devil on the other hand, threatened her with misery and death should she betray her love. They both whispered into her ears, telling her what should be done.

Without much thinking, one could conclude that the Decepticons were prophets and arbiters of ruin, death and villainy. The Autobots were the crusaders and advocates of peace, prosperity and righteousness on the other side of the pole. She'd be doing her fellow mankind a great treason by lying about what had been going on under the cover of moonlight in the past month. But she'd also be betraying a Decepticon who had treated her far better than his society had demanded. This heartless, crude, bloodthirsty beast loved her. In order to keep that love living, betrayal needed to be taken out of the picture completely.

Cynthia genuinely had no clue what to do. Theoretically, she could tell the Autobots about what happened and offer to help them take down the Decepticons and save both humanity and other peace-loving Cybertronians. She could still see Blitzwing and continue to worm her way into his spark fully. If he slipped some information to her, she could relay it back to the Autobots and betray him. Then it would be all over. He'd most likely be put to death alongside Megatron and the others for their crimes. Then Blitzwing would look back at her and silently ask her why she did this to him through the simple action of looking into her eyes.

Or, she could say absolutely nothing. She could deny everything and play stupid. The Autobots would be kept in the dark and people would continue dying when the Decepticons would come into the city for a raid or for whatever other destructive reason. Cynthia could continue to meet Blitzwing however the threat of having them being discovered would still loom over their heads like a circling tiger shark. The thought of people's lives being in her hands based on a selfish decision made her physically and emotionally ill.

"We have a potential reason to believe that the Decepticons want you for some reason," Prowl picked up. "Do you have any possible idea for why they might want you?"

"I don't know!" Cynthia was exasperated as her thoughts and emotions weighed in on her. "I have no clue why they would want me! I don't want them to want me!"

"Did you ever find any sparkling gem shards by any chance?" Bumblebee asked. "That's what they look like to organics but in all actuality they're Allspark fragments. If you're holding a piece of it, there's a good chance those 'Cons would be after you."

"If I did have them, I would've sold them to get some money so I could support myself and my siblings while we live here. I never came across these fragments you're talking about." She sighed heavily and ran her hands through her hair. "Look, I go to class, I take care of an eighteen and sixteen year old, I eat, I sleep and repeat. I'm an average twenty three year old girl trying to not get killed by warring robots!"

She didn't dare to say anything like 'oh, and I'm in love with the enemy. Have a nice day'. If that happened, she figured she might as well throw herself into a volcano.

"Clearly, you're stressed by this matter but unfortunately, it's reality," Optimus said calmly.

"Miss, if you don't mind, is that alright if I do a scan to see if there are any foreign bodies in you?" Ratchet questioned.

Cynthia's eyes widened. She hoped to God Blitzwing wasn't spying in any way shape or form. Ratchet would be one dead Autobot otherwise.

"Uh, why?" she asked as horror infiltrated her pupils, making them dilate. Her voice weakened. "I-is it necessary..?"

"It's a safety precaution," Ratchet assured. "When you were held by the Decepticons for that period of time, it's unlikely but possible they could've implanted a device in you. I just want to run a quick scan to see if that is the case. Optimus told me that you were questioned by Captain Fanzone the night you reappeared. Fanzone told him that you refused to be transported to the hospital."

"Yeah, that's true. I have an irrational fear of doctors though."

"Well, I'm sure that if the Decepticons placed a remote controlled bomb in your skull, you'd want it out by all means."

"Okay. You can scan me. I'm pretty sure I don't have a bomb in my brain."

She shut her eyes, preferring to not see how exactly he would scan her. Since Blitzwing overreacted so outrageously with Wes' mere presence, she could just picture what would happen if he found out Ratchet scanned her. Although Blitzwing never did tell her what happened when she was unconscious in his quarters, Cynthia was fairly confident he safeguarded her and didn't place a bomb in her brain. Then again, knowing how odd he could be at times, she wouldn't be completely surprised if he put a diffused one in her head for kicks.

"I'm gonna have a nice long talk with that jerk," she told herself mentally. "When he calls, I'm gonna give him a mouthful. I told him Wes wasn't to be harassed! Now he thinks Blitzwing has a crush on me which is wholy true. All I know is, he better shut up and not tell a soul about what he thinks is going on. If my parents get wind of that, I'm screwed. Blitzwing won't let me leave and things will get so ugly… I have to be in complete control of the situation as does he if we're going to make things right. I think he's doing a better job of keeping things in the dark than I am."

So, she had decided to not betray him after all. Cynthia groaned internally, knowing that at some point things weren't going to be all hunky-dory. In a way, she believed she was prolonging the inevitable. Somehow, someway, some day, the curtain was going to be pulled back. It was just a question of when and how. Embers of hope remained glowing in her heart though and she also believed that they could also remain together despite their drastic differences in this world.

"Looks alright to me," Ratchet announced.

It was brief, lasting only about ten seconds. Cynthia's eyes reopened and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"So, I'm clear?"

Ratchet nodded.

"That certainly is good to know," Optimus said. "But I think it would be wise to take an extra step in safety and precaution."

"What's that?" Cyndi was getting fed up with this.

"Ms. Preston, I am offering you to stay with us for at least a few days for this heat to blow over. The Decepticons will not find you while you are in our care."

Yeah, right. If there's a will and a way, Blitzwing would find it and exploit it. The Autobots would be signing their own death warrants by sheltering her for a little while. What would happen if he wanted to meet her? Mandy and Darien would have a Hell of a time trying to explain to him where she was.

"No, don't go out of your way," Cynthia said, trying to sound as gracious and civil as possible. "I must decline that offer. I'm just an average organic like I said. I can remain hidden. If I really start to doubt my personal safety and welfare, I can always go back to my parents' home in New York."

"We won't force you if you don't want to," said Bulkhead. "That's alright."

"If you ever believe the 'Cons are onto you, don't hesitate to contact us," Bumblebee reminded her optimistically. "We'll be there to stop them like we did today."

"Don't worry, I will," Cyndi laughed shortly. "Thank you for your generosity, Autobots. If you don't mind, I'm going to go home and take a breather from all this."

"That's completely understandable," Optimus agreed. "Sorry to bother you with so many questions, Ms. Preston. Take care."

Cynthia nodded at them respectfully. Then she turned on her heels and began to walk up the road to begin her long trek back to the campus grounds where her car was located. She jogged along rather quickly, eager to hop into her vehicle and go home where she could hide for the rest of the day.

"She's very edgy and tense," Prowl observed. "I'm still suspicious about the girl."

"Well, duh," Bumblebee pointed out, "she had a scare. If I was an organic femme like her and I had Starscream and Blitzwing fighting over the right to kill me, I'd be shaken up too."

"Obviously, I think the Decepticons want her for one reason or another. She may be completely oblivious as to why this is the case but I can sense a connection of some sort. I find it highly unlikely that she was randomly abducted today and kidnapped a month ago for no reason at all." The ninja bot faced Bulkhead. "Bulkhead, you said you saved her from Blitzwing a month ago. What exactly happened?"

"She crossed paths with Blitzwing and I when we were in the middle of a fight," the big green mech explained. "I told her to duck and I got blasted by him. I didn't see what happened during the time when it was just her and him in the street because I was knocked into a building. When I finally did get my strength back, I could see her standing right beside his stabilizing servo. I thought she went crazy. Blitzwing must've realized where she was and he tried to squish her. Then she and about two other Humans bolted together before he could kill them."

"Something is going on and I don't like it."

"Let's not jump to conclusions too quickly, Prowl," warned the Prime. "For now, all we have are a few chance sightings and stories. We have to wait for more evidence to surface before we can be sure of ourselves."

The black and gold motorbike only nodded grimly, accepting his superior's judgment.


	25. Whisper

**Thanks for the reviews/faves/alerts everyone! :) Much appreciated! So, I want to make a little comment about this chapter: Professor Sumdac may seem a little OOC-ish here but I can't say for sure. I was trying to capture his possible mentality considering him being a prisoner of the Decepticons but other than that, I think I have his personality down. Other than that, I don't think there's anything I really need to explain or forewarn anything for this chapter. Please enjoy the update! :)**

**P.S. I also want to make a little shout out for **Fruity Sangheili**'s story, '_Life on the Nickel'. _I recommend this story to anyone who loves fics about HumanXTransformer pairings! The main pairing is AlexisXStarscream but there are some other sweet little pairings as well. It's awesomely written and gripping. I promise that it won't disappoint! Go check it out! **

Chapter 25 Whisper

(Decepticon lair – 7:00pm : February 16th)

Professor Issac Sumdac glumly looked at his fingers. He was sitting on the edge of his cot, remaining inanimate and appearing to be quite depressed. The poor robotics genius almost looked pale due to his imprisonment and the lack of sunlight and fresh air. He felt it was almost hard to breathe at times due to the stagnant air in his prison. At times, he felt like he was brain dead because of the depletion of stimulation and the drabness of his surroundings. From this feeling of detachment and stultification, he developed persistent headaches. There were bags beneath his eyes and his hair looked like it lost its black luster. His posture was slouched and unconfident. The man's whole stance and outer aura would remind one of a regretful gambling addict who had lost his whole life to his vice.

Emotionally, he was equally haggard and unhealthy as he was physically. He never smiled. Apathy and despair ruled him. When he tried to think of the happier things in life, his thoughts were set ablaze and the ashes were whisked away by the winds of reality. There were many times when he considered suicide as a convenient escape from this insufferable Hell. Sumdac believed he was doomed to live there for the rest of his life and then die: broken, feeling useless, and forgotten. He saw himself as an affection-starved pet gerbil whom was given the absolute bare necessities of sustenance and left to painful loneliness. While he was a gerbil, the four Decepticons were cruel adolescent boys who neglected and tortured him.

But he refused to give up hope fully or take the coward's way out by committing suicide. His saving grace was his daughter, Sari. Isaac believed that one day, he'd be set free. He'd be reunited with his little girl and they'd be a family again. He didn't worry too much about her since he knew she was in excellent care due to being babysat and protected by her five Autobot friends. Sumdac placed his full confidence in them and he didn't doubt that they were doing what they could to make her life comfortable without his presence. He thought about her when he woke up and when he went to sleep. In fact, every single one of his thoughts almost centralized around her. When Megatron wasn't ordering him to create doomsday devices and other destruction-sowing weapons, Sumdac was reminiscing about the days before the Autobots and Decepticons arrived onto the scene. He was remembering the times when she didn't have a care in all the world.

Then he was snapped out of his thoughts when he got the distinct feeling he was being watched. The professor was used to this unnerving sensation considering he was perpetually in the presence of hostile inorganic aliens but he couldn't help to feel chilled sometimes.

He turned around and gasped loudly. The white streak in his hair almost grew.

"Hi!" Random Blitzwing greeted jollily.

"Blitzwing…" the organic exhaled, putting a hand over his heart. "You gave me quite a scare… How long have you been watching me?"

"I don't know, maybe five Earth minutes or so. I decided to spy on jou!"

Blitzwing pointed over to a table that was in Sumdac's cell. On the table, there was a device that looked like it was half finished. Fragile components that were meant to be integrated into the curious looking gun-like mystery machine were sprawled across the surface of the table. A few tools like a screwdriver were placed neatly in a tool box that was situated in the top right corner on the surface.

"Vhen is zat going to be finished?" he asked. "I can't vait until it's done! Can I be ze test subject?"

"Whenever I can get it done, it'll be done," Sumdac reported blandly. "I'm tired and I want to sleep…"

"Ja, I can tell! Jou sit zhere all ze time looking miserable and lazy! Zat's no vay to live jour life!"

"I don't have a choice." His anger towards his current fate was making an emergence. "I didn't ask for this to befall me."

"Hey, I don't like jour tone!" Hothead replaced Random. "I vill crush jou if jou don't lose ze attitude!"

Sumdac sighed ponderously and turned his back on Blitzwing. Death threats were getting quite tiresome. He was accustomed to them and he had not taken them seriously so much anymore.

"I'm talking to jou!" Blitzwing rapped against the glass.

"I hear you," Isaac exhaled.

"Professor, turn zat frown upside down!" Random beamed.

"Sorry, I can't lift my own spirits as long as I'm stuck here, all cooped up."

"Jou von't trick me," Icy smirked. "I vill not be made a fool in Megatron's optics."

"Do you think I'm planning to try to trick you and your friends?" Sumdac had some angst and hostility in his voice. "I would've done that earlier. As far as I'm concerned, I see I'm at Megatron's complete mercy. I'm trapped like a rat."

"And don't jou forget zat, Professor… Jou know, I zhink I know just vhy jou are so miserable."

"I don't care, just say it."

"Zat child, Sari, is jour daughter. Jou miss her, don't jou?"

The organic man said nothing. He continued to give Blitzwing a cold shoulder. Sumdac could feel stray tears coming to his eyes but he resolved to remain strong in front of the Decepticons. Any visible signs of mental or emotional fractures were strictly forbidden to be shown. To show them weakness would just result in an increase in the magnitude of torture they already administered.

"I know it bozhers jou," the triple changer resumed. "I hate to admit it but our species is alike. Ve both have feelings. She is all jou have and vant."

"Don't talk to me anymore!" Sumdac raised his voice. "Go fly off into the night like you always do. You think no one sees you but you always forget me. I see everything."

Blitzwing's normal optic widened ever so slightly. His defenses bristled and they rose up like a magical wall of fire.

"It's none of jour concern, germ," he reminded coldly. "Megatron, Lugnut and Starscream know of my vanderings and zhey have no problem vith it."

"Then why do it so sneakily like you always do?" Sumdac turned around, glancing over his shoulder. He could see the tension etched onto Icy's normally pristine face. "You look around like you're a teenager about to steal their parents' car. Why not fly off into the night so loudly and proudly?"

"Listen to me very carefully, jou primitive life form," Hothead warned. The tone in his voice made the professor listen especially well to what was about to be said. "Jou better shut up right now. If jou don't silence jourself, I promise zat I vill fly into ze city by myself and raid ze Autobot base. After I kill all zhose bots, I vill take jour brat, bring her back her and crush her in my servo like a rotten piece of fruit! And I vill make sure I kill her vhile jou vatch helplessly!"

Sumdac couldn't dam up a gasp. The gory and mortifying scene played like a miniature slasher movie in his mind. Painfully, he envisioned Sari's dreadful screeches. Her shrieks would then be drowned out as her fragile young skeleton shattered like glass. The blood would seep through Blitzwing's fist and it would drip to the floor like meat shanks hung up in a butcher shop.

"Leave Sari out of this!" he yelled adamantly. The stout man leapt off his cot and threw himself against the glass. "Don't kill her!"

"Zhen shut up," Blitzwing replied simply. "Don't ask about vhat I do."

"Do ve have a deal?" Random grinned his grin.

"Decepticons are Decepticons."

"Oh, how typical," Icy said, frustrated. "Just to inform jou, I don't look forvard to killing organic younglings nor do I consider it ze highlight of my day. On ze ozher hand, Starscream zhinks it's a blast. He doesn't need orders from Megatron to do zat."

"You're no better than the others and you know it, Blitzwing. You're nothing but a hypocrite."

Blitzwing merely backed off. He knew Sumdac wasn't to be killed unless if Megatron had ordered it. Thus, he allowed the robotics genius to live another day in the dreary, depressing, dank lair.

(apartment – 9:00pm)

Cynthia poured some fresh, crisp water into the glass cylinder. She fluffed up the cluster of yellow lilies that occupied the vase and brought her face in close to the bunch. The sweet aroma wafted through her nostrils, placing a smile on her face. Breathing outwards, she closed her eyes.

She picked up a piece of paper that sat on the kitchen table. As it turned out, the paper was included alongside the bouquet of her favorite flower when she discovered it outside the apartment door in the early hours of Valentine's Day. There was a little note written on it and the handwriting was a little crude and hard to read as if the writer was using a pen for the first time.

_'Happy Valentine's Day, Cynthia! Sorry I can't see you right now but hopefully you understand. I promise I will see you as soon as things settle. I love you! P.S. I'm sorry I tried to kill Wes…'_

When she got a voicemail at nine in the morning a few hours after she discovered her bouquet, she discovered who her "secret" admirer was. To a certain extent, Cynthia felt bad that she didn't get a little token of love for Blitzwing. But she asked herself what exactly she could give to a Decepticon who only gave her the lilies as a sign of respect for the organic holiday. As far as she knew, his kind didn't celebrate Valentine's Day, so she was extremely flattered he gave her something. What amazed Cyndi the most was that he got her favorite flowers for her.

He could either be sucking up to her since the incident with Wes or he did love her. Cyndi believed it was a combination of both.

She hadn't seen him since the attack on Detroit on the twelfth and she only talked to him once via her cell phone. She ripped into him for harassing Wes against her wishes and he did apologize for his actions. Again, Blitzwing replied by saying he was just being overprotective of her. He swore that he wouldn't track him down and finish the job and Cyndi had been appeased with that vow.

Obviously, she found herself missing him. At times, she hated having to coordinate their meetings based on the fact they needed to be treated as covert operations. Cyndi was often sick of having to go about in secrecy but grudgingly, she knew it was the only way to keep their romance blooming.

"I'm surprised Mom and Dad didn't call here regarding what happened a few days ago," Darien said. He walked over to the refrigerator and opened it up. "With all the stuff posted up on YouTube, I'm really surprised."

Cynthia wasn't expecting to have someone talk to her. Actually, she jumped when her brother spoke to her. Her grip on the note was nonexistent now.

"YouTube?" she said. Her eyes grew. "Don't tell me billions of people can see me on the internet now!"

"The quality of the video recorders weren't all that great and in all honesty, you look like a blur," the boy assured. He selected a piece of cold pizza and began to eat it that way without heating it. "You should see all the hits though. It's incredible!"

"How many?"

"Easily over a million. Put it that way."

"And Blitzwing and Starscream..?"

"Yup, they're in the video. A lot of them stopped at the scene where Blitzwing flew away from the Autobots."

"Great. Just great. And it's all because he thought it was appropriate to try to kill a guy friend of mine. Your wacked friend, Benji, thinks I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi too."

"He kept telling me you had to have pulled a Jedi mind trick on Blitzwing in order to have him let you go."

"You can tell him that as long as you never mention to him Blitzwing and I are together."

"Yeah, might as well… Just where is your gentleman caller? He left the flowers for you on Valentine's Day but you haven't gone out to see him."

"He's too busy trying to cover himself," Amanda said as she walked into the living room from her bedroom. She could see her brother and sister standing in the kitchen. "Either that or he's afraid Cyndi's going to wail on him for abducting Wes."

"Well, he knows to never go near him again," Cynthia leaned up against the kitchen counter. "If he does, then it gets ugly."

"You've got some balls to say that," Darien cut in. "Yeah, we all know he loves you but you have a tendency to walk on him, Sis. He could snap…" He snapped a finger. "Just like that! It's like an animal trainer and their pet grizzly bear."

"Except he's scarier than a bear," Mandy added. "And he's uglier than one to boot. I'm rooting for you all the way, Cyndi. You're the female! You have ultimate control! Make him bow to you. That's what I'd do if I had my own man."

Within the deepest recesses of her own mind, Cynthia had to confess to herself that at times, she found herself a little paranoid in his presence. Rightly, she was careful to mask this discomfort from Blitzwing. The stigma he bore was often overpowering for her to deal with. It was especially unnerving when she curled up on his chest like a kitten. Far too often, her eyes were glued to the purple and white seal that defined him.

When their strange love had first began, Cyndi was under the grand illusion he was somehow going to restrain himself for her. Momentarily, she caught herself hoping he'd become an Autobot for her so she'd feel less guilty about seeing him. Then she was rudely awakened from her day dreams when he had spirited Wes away while she blatantly commanded him to not do such a thing. The whole incident with the gargoyle statue he threw at the videographer also morbidly reminded her of what he truly was. She was risking death even more so than she had originally foreseen. Without a doubt, she was possibly gambling with the feelings of a force far more powerful and terrifying than any make believe bogie who lived under the bed.

Again, she couldn't believe she was still alive.

"I think it's great he saved Mandy and I from that creepy robot a month ago," Darien admitted, giving Blitzwing credit. "But he is a killer. None of us can say he's a tree-hugging hippie."

"I know, I know," Cynthia said quickly. "It's been a month and I'm still alive. It's impressive if you ask me."

The phone rang. Naturally, Amanda decided to answer it considering she was in the living room where it was located.

"'Bout time Mom called back," she huffed. "I need to see if she's finally going to let me have that extra cash to get some clothes. I don't get paid enough at work!"

"Then find a better job," Cynthia stated blandly.

"Hello, Preston residence, this is Amanda speaking."

Cyndi and Darien hovered in the kitchen, listening in on their sister's conversation out of simple boredom. The boy shoved the rest of his piece of pizza into his mouth. Cynthia folded her arms across her belly.

"Wait, who is this?" they heard the blonde say. There was a pause. "OH, IT'S YOU!"

The other two siblings hustled into the living room to meet with Amanda. When they met up with her, they could see the astonishment and disgust carved onto her face. She was holding the phone away from her head. From the earpiece, they could hear loud, borderline obnoxious laughter.

"If you don't take this phone now, I'm going to smash it up against the wall!" Amanda thrust the device to her sister. "Tell him he isn't allowed to call the apartment!"

"I vill keep doing it just to annoy jou!" Random said.

The middle sibling shoved the phone into her elder sister's hands gruffly. Growling, she shook her blonde bob and stormed out of the living room, leaving a cloud of angst behind. Her bedroom door slammed loudly.

"She is unbelievable," Cynthia apologized on her sister's behalf. "Ignore her."

"I know she hates me but I don't care," Hothead said. "I contacted jou because I vant to see jou."

"Well, I'd like to see you too. Is it safe for you to head out and meet me? Have things cooled off since you got in that fight with Starscream?"

"He learned his lesson vell." Blitzwing's prouder persona decided to omit the bit about Megatron's intervention. "I should have no issue vith meeting jou."

"Okay, so should we meet at the barn?"

"Yes, zat's fine," said Icy. "I vill meet jou zhere."

"Done. I'm leaving right now."

(an hour later)

There wasn't a monstrous accumulation of snow on the road so Cynthia didn't have too much trouble driving out to the rural regions outside of Detroit. Within no time at all, she made it to the abandoned farm where she and Blitzwing met up in secrecy. She pulled over at the mouth of the badly managed dirt road that led deeper into the slumbering woods. Her headlights shut off and the car engine was next.

Cyndi opened up her door and slammed it shut behind her a few seconds later. She zipped up her yellow ski jacket and looked about her surroundings, on the search for anything that might possibly hint to possible intruders.

On the road, she could see various animal tracks that looked fresh as if they had been made minutes before. Since she had grown up in Upstate New York with a forest in her backyard, Cyndi had some grasp on the different types of trails and footprints she could indentify. There were some hoof prints: clear signs that deer were nearby. From the look of it, there seemed to be that a lot of them had crossed the road at the same time. When she saw so many tracks together like this going in one direction, she concluded they were fleeing from a predator or some danger in the air. Back at home, she would've believed a mountain lion or maybe a hunter's dog had caused the herd to bolt en masse.

"Well, I know he made it here before me," she mumbled out loud. "But he's not here to greet me…" Her eyes rolled. "More games undoubtedly."

"Once again, jou judged me vrong," the accented voice spoke from the cold shadows.

Looking off to her left, she saw Blitzwing approaching her through the woods. She walked over to the Decepticon to meet up with him. His servo came down to the ground to lift her up to his face. Happily, Cyndi stepped up and he raised his metal hand.

"Jou look familiar, organic," Random chuckled. "I saw jou in ze city a few days earlier. I never forget a pretty face!"

"You're as sweet as honey when you try to be, you know that?" she said, smiling.

"Yes, I am vell avare of zat! I know jou can't resist me eizher! And ze ozher femmes vill all be jealous because all zat honey is for jou!"

"I think Mandy is jealous sometimes…"

"She should be nicer zhen."

Gingerly, he set a kiss on her cheek. Cynthia smooched him right back and draped her arms across his face.

"Oh, jou are just so cute!" he doted. "Jou really are!"

"Just as long as you don't start calling me 'kitty', I'll deal with it," she said, drawing back from his face.

"Are jou cold?" Hothead questioned, being as possessive and overprotective with her wellbeing as usual.

"I'm alright. It's a little cold but I can wait for a few minutes before we go in the barn…"

Cynthia silenced herself when she saw faint slashes on this persona's face. Her expression tensed and she looked hard at them. She knelt down in his servo and ran her hand across the discolored hide tone.

"What happened to you?" the woman almost demanded.

"Starscream," he said blandly. "Ve fought more once ve made it back to ze lair. Don't vorry, I avenged myself. All it needs is a little more buffing." He smirked devilishly. "I gave zat Pretty Bot a nasty vound much vorse zhan vhat he gave me."

"It looks like it hurt a lot…"

"It did but I had to get over it to beat ze slag out of him."

"So, jou do like zhose flowers I got for jou?" Random pressed. "Jou said jou loved zem over jour phone but I vanted to hear it again."

"My favorite color and my favorite flower…" She smiled. "Now I know why you asked me what my favorite color and flower was at the Steel Star…" Her smirk widened. "Were you thinking about charming me even then?"

"I can't really say…" She paused for a moment, her thoughts turning back to more serious matters. Her eyes averted from his, focusing on her boots. Blitzwing noticed this. "Vhat's on jour mind, Cyndi?"

"Is that alright if we have a talk? I feel a little paranoid standing here in the woods like this. Can we go to the barn to have some secrecy?"

"Yes, I can do zat," said Icy. In his spark, he felt things weren't going to get very pretty. "Ve'll go now so ve can talk."

(…)

She unzipped her jacket since things were warmer in the barn rather than in the open. Cynthia misjudged the true temperature of the atmosphere when the cold blast of air hit her in her chest. Goose bumps sprang up on her skin and she shuddered. Her arms folded across her chest to conserve some heat. For a moment, she wished she had her trusty yellow bandana to wear over her head.

The organic began to pace around the barn again just as she did when she first explored it. Stepping over an old rusty scythe, Cynthia examined an antique gas lamp that was hanging weakly on a wooden peg jutting from a support beam. The glass was cracked and its entire outer surface was covered in soot and decades old oxidation.

"Let me ask you a question," she said, not forgetting Blitzwing was still with her.

"Vell, do it," Hothead said with impatience. "Jou're making me paranoid vith jou valking around and not saying anyzhing to me! Jou said jou vanted to come in here and talk and jou valk avay!"

Sighing, she left the side of the lamp and approached the manic Decepticon. Blitzwing was sitting on the floor with his legs close to his chest. His arms were wrapped around them, resting above his knees.

Cynthia took a seat on a pile of hay that wreaked of mildew and decay. Blitzwing shook his helm in disapproval and removed her from her seat. He set her on the top of his knee guard.

"Talk to me," he ordered.

"That's why I was wandering around earlier," she said. "I was trying to figure out how to put this to you."

"Oh, please don't tell me it's about jour stupid friend I almost killed! I zhought ve vere over zat! At least he's alive, right?"

"It's about him partially…"

"Vait, are ve breaking up?" His frown became heavier. "I object!"

"No! Shut up! Stop jumping to conclusions before I can even speak! You're getting on my case about not talking to you but when I do try to explain something to you, you hardly listen!" The triple changer folded his arms across his chest. He fell silent, allowing her to speak without interrupting her. "Thank you!"

"Explain. I von't interrupt jou."

"Before we get too in depth, let me ask you a question… Do you think this is all necessary? Do you think this is worth the risk?"

"Of course!" Random blurted. "Zat's vhy I'm here now! I haven't seen jou since I vent to ze city!"

"Okay, what are you willing to do to make sure this will be kept alive?"

"Vait, hold on a moment," Icy interrupted much to Cyndi's annoyance. "Let me ask jou a question, Cynzhia. Do jou have doubt?"

There was an inkling of doubt in her. Sometimes, she had caught herself wondering if it was possible to maintain a relationship with him in a time and place such as the present. As Cynthia thought about it, she believed that no matter where she'd be or what era of history she was in, it would always be considered taboo. Yes, people were free to choose whom to give their hearts over to: it was a beautiful liberty. However, in the eyes of other and within the whispers of her conscious, she had possibly been too liberal. True, outsiders might never find out the truth but the pressures of her world would weigh in on her sooner or later. Others might've had no power to end it. On the other hand, she had total control.

"Yes, I do have some doubt," she came clean. It almost hurt to say it to his face yet she didn't want to be dishonest with him. "I'm not going to hide it from you, Blitzwing. Although, I hope you can understand why I feel this way. I think it would be extremely wrong for you to not understand me considering whom you serve."

"No, I do understand jou," he nodded. "I'm pleased to see jou are being honest vith me. Since jou are honest vith me, I vill return ze favor. I know zhere vere a few moments vhen I zhought ve vere doomed. I vas vorried for ze both of us."

"What happens if we are discovered? What should we do? What would happen to us?"

"I can't answer zat. I know zat if Megatron found out, he vould severely punish me and end up killing jou. I don't know about jour race, Cyndi. At best, jou vould be cursed and cast out."

"I know we may be talking a little heavily about our future together but I just wanted to know these things regardless. We've only known each other for almost two months." She hated acting emotional in front of him. "Yet I know for a fact that I feel something for you. I'm not ready to let go of you now. I just want to possibly see how far we'll go. I want to see if I can defy the odds and still be happy in the end. I know I may get discouraged and I will have fleeting thoughts of abandoning you to find comfort in the ordinary but I feel I will hold on…"

"I vill not force jou to remain vith me. Ve agreed to be vith each ozher. I am not holding jou prisoner. If jou zhink it is strange, discomforting and far too dangerous for jour vellbeing, zhen I vill let jou go."

"But what about you? You have needs and fears as well. Don't you enslave yourself to me either."

Blitzwing only grinned. He shook his helm briefly.

"I'm loyal to a femme who has my spark," he said. "I vill remain vith her unless she has betrayed me in some horrible vay…" Briefly, he recalled on a fling he had before he had been remade into a triple changer. As beautiful as she was, she was full of venom, deceitful wiles and bitterness. Blitzwing decided to not mention this to Cynthia until they had stayed together longer. "I do not sense zat potential in jou. At least, I'm hope my assumption is correct."

"I will not betray you," she swore. Deep inside, she hoped she wasn't deceiving herself into thinking she could keep such vow.

"Vonderful!" Random said happily. "Zhen ve vill go far!"

"And jou know I von't betray jou to my fellow Decepticons," Hothead reminded. "I said it once and I'll say it again: I von't let anyone hurt jou." He raised a digit. "I know vhat jou vill say… Yes, I am a Decepticon. But I can make an exception for jou, Cyndi."

"So, you're not bothered or feel uncomfortable..?"

"Put it zis vay, I vould've killed jou if I didn't like jou. If I didn't vant to be vith jou, jou'd know."

He made a good, solid point there.

"True," Cynthia admitted. "So, we're sticking together?"

"Of course!" said Random. "Silly femme, I zhought jou knew better!"

"Should we still limit our meetings to once or twice a week?"

"Yes, it vould be vise to abide by zat regulation," Icy regarded. "For our sake, it's ze safest precaution ve can take." His gaze hardened. "Promise me zat jou vill still stay avay from zhose Autobots. It took a lot of restraint for me to not kill zem all vhen zhey made me surrender jou."

"I try to avoid them as much as possible. They've begun to suspect that you and the Decepticons want me for some reason anyway."

"All ze better for jou to run ze ozher vay vhen zhey show up."

"So, if ve be smart, ve'll be alright," the black and red face reasoned. "I got it all covered zhen!"

(…)

"That is all I ask of you… What do you say?"

In the darkness of the cave, there were two pairs of ruby optics that gleamed like hellish crystals. They were both transfixed on each other, shutting the world around them out. The two metallic, shadowy figures were standing together in an undeveloped section of the Decepticon lair for their own good shady reasons.

"Well, partner," the gruff yet smooth voice stated, "what's in it for me? I'm not a spy really. I'm more of the mercenary type as you know."

"I'm sure there's a mod or two I can swipe for you," the first voice said. "You really don't need paid much anyway considering all I need you to do is just figure something out for me. I know for a fact there's some deceit going on behind my back. I've seen it. I followed him once and he took this organic with him. I abducted her in the city to see what his reaction would be. I fear the worst personally. I believe he is in love with a Human. I need you to do this for me also so I have the proof I need to present to Megatron. He…" He rubbed his neck, his palm tracing over the discolored metal where there was once an unsightly wound. "Let's just say, Megatron doesn't believe in everything I say."

The bounty hunter was more than aware of what was going on. He knew for a fact that Blitzwing was in love with Cynthia. But the crafty bot was going to play dumb with the situation and omit any free info he had on the couple. He'd get a free mod or some other payment for doing that.

"Besides," Starscream further explained, "I think he knows I'm onto him. I believe the son of a glitch is most likely with this Cynthia as we speak!"

"Alright," Lockdown shrugged apathetically, "I guess I'll take up your offer. I've got nothing better to do anyway. Harassing organics on back roads gets old after sometime anyway. I'm a fairly reasonable bot so I think I'll have to agree with you on my payment. I might even say it's free if I get to see the freak show myself."

"Oh, you will not be disappointed. I'll even invite you to witness the moment of truth when Megatron confronts Blitzwing about the matter."

Lockdown smiled crookedly. He had been itching for some revenge ever since the triple changer belittled him before Amanda and Darien. When Blitzwing made him swear to not tell anyone about him and Cynthia, he did honor that promise and for the past month, he had said nothing. But the promise of a payment was good enough for him to forsake it.

"You got yourself a deal, Starscream," Lockdown raised his hooked servo.

"Excellent," the seeker crooned, "I can always count on Cybertron's best bounty hunter to take care of business. I suggest that we lead Blitzwing into a false sense of security and then when he thinks everything's all perfect, you follow him. Then we'll present the evidence and nail him. He won't even know what hit him. We'll give him a few Earth months to lull him into a false sense of security." He pointed a clawed finger at Lockdown. "Then you will lift the veil and make life a little more interesting for everyone in that wretched mine."


	26. That's Life

**Thanks for the reviews, guys. You rock... :O So, the title of this chapter is named after a Frank Sinatra song. I LOVE Frank Sinatra so I had to include one of my favorite songs by him in the chapter and name it after the song. Also, as you will soon find out, in this chapter, it is June instead of February like in the last chapter. It's not a typo, it's intentional. Nothing of great significance happened in that time span as you will find at as you read on. So without further ado, please review and most importantly, enjoy!**

**P.S. I've established a little challenge for myself: try to minimize/eliminate holoform usage. The only exceptions will be chapter 27 and chapter 31 because I've already finished them before I made this decision. I want to try to mix some stuff up. It is getting old and I thank the critics of this story for challenging and forcing me to get more creative. :) Alright, on with the story for real! **

Chapter 26 '_That's Life_'

(A few months later, June 4th: Erie Environmental Offices – 1:00pm)

Cynthia wet her lips. Her hands slightly curled into fists as some anger took over her. She tried to maintain her composure in front of her future potential boss, daring to not react explosively over the matter. The young woman needed to remind herself she couldn't act like a spoiled child since she was an adult now. It'd be so embarrassing and extremely unprofessional if she threw a fit in the director's office.

"Mr. Potts, I think you may be mistaken," she said waveringly.

"No, Ms. Preston, I don't think so," the man replied stiffly. He pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "Your resume is rather blank. You held a few jobs back home in New York but since you've moved here to Detroit, you haven't been employed."

"Yes, that is correct. I've been attending college full time. I'd be a wreck if I had juggled a job, went to school and looked after my siblings at the same time."

"In real life, people do this all the time. I think you'd be far better qualified for the position you've applied for if you had a Bachelor's Degree."

"But the advisors at the campus told me I'd be able to…"

"Well, then, they themselves are incompetent at their jobs because they've misinformed you, Ms. Preston."

Cynthia sighed in defeat. She thought she'd be able to get a job or possibly even an internship in Erie's ecological departments with an Associate's Degree based on the guidance of the advisors she had seen. To be denied of what she had worked for thoroughly angered her.

"Will there be a position open for me when I do get my Bachelor's?" she said, trying to remain as externally serene as possible. "I had moved out to Detroit to work here…"

"I can give you absolutely no guarantees," Mr. Potts revealed. "I think you should have done a little more research on jobs in our department first before you moved here. When you get your next degree, stop by again and I'll see what I can do. I know you have gusto for this but you just don't meet the qualifications, Ms. Preston. I'm sorry but I'll have to decline you."

It felt like she got punched in the face by a thug with a pair of brass knuckles. However, she fought to maintain her cracking calm façade. It'd be a disgrace to beg and break down for the job.

"No, it's alright, Mr. Potts," she said hollowly. "I understand."

They shook hands one final time. Forcing out a weak smile, Cynthia walked out of his office. When her back was facing him, her smile dissolved and it was replaced by a bitter, heavy, ugly frown. Her high heels that she had bought just for the interview clacked loudly against the linoleum floor.

"Unbelievable!" she screamed within herself. "Un-freaking-believable! Those advisors are worthless! So much for having them help me get my degree! I have to go through another two years before that stuck-up hires me? It'll be completely worthless by then! I might as well work at that damn grocery store with Mandy now! I should do everything for myself if I want things done!"

She exited the building, entering the parking lot. Her eyes focused on her dark blue car and made a beeline for it. At least she was happy she had acquired her new car a week ago after finally accumulating enough money from her bank account and from some convincing her parents.

Her fingers searched the bottom of her purse for her keys. After a few seconds of searching, she could hear the jingle of the keys and she pulled them out. Cyndi unlocked the car door and opened it up. Angrily, she slammed it shut and sat in the driver's seat. She slammed a hand against the steering wheel.

"I'll act like a child in privacy," she mumbled to herself. "I'd definitely ruin any future chances I had if I melted down in his office…" Then she laughed to herself. "Well, so much for those interview exercises I did with Blitzwing last night."

Very naturally, she had anxiety in her the night before her interview. Blitzwing had noticed this nervousness even though she didn't tell him about it and he offered to help her combat her fears. However, Random had to make a big joke out of the whole thing and make it fun rather than as a practice as Icy and Hothead intended.

'_Vhat do jou plan on vearing to vork if I hire jou?_'

'_Blitzwing, what's the validity with that question?_'

'_Oh, everyzhing! If jou vant to vork in my office, jou have to vear miniskirts and knee high boots!_'

'_You're an ass._'

'_And during jour lunch break, jou better have an appetite for more zhan just food! Ahahahaha!_'

Cyndi smiled. He had managed to remove some of her fear but now she was straight out mad at the fact the interview was a flop. Her beau had wanted her to contact him as soon as she got done with the meeting but she decided driving angrily while talking on the phone was too risky. Experience taught her that. For now, he could wait.

(Detroit High School – 2:30pm)

The love struck teenager looked discouragingly at the object of his admiration. He could hardly look at her directly but at the same time, it was so hard to tear his gaze away from her. His palms sweated and he could feel his heart pitter patter rapidly like a child's feet on a hardwood floor. Darien shifted nervously as he stood by the high school's front doors, waiting for her to drift past him.

Five months had gone by since he had first met her in January when school started back up after break. At first, he was wary and borderline afraid of her but as time went on, he saw past her intimidating aura. But as time had worn on, he had grown fond of Tristan Cooley. Darien was grateful for her giving him a chance and letting him get closer to her but the girl was still distant and closely guarded to a certain degree. They had always conversed together in school but outside of their academic lives, they had never met up to go to the mall (thanks to Tristan) or any other place to spend time together as friends. Now that he thought about it, she never invited anyone back over to her house after school.

With every week that had went by, the youngest Preston sibling had convinced himself that he was falling for her a little harder. When he looked at her, his heart fluttered. When she spoke, he couldn't stop smiling. At times, he felt like a fool just being in her mere presence. Darien only prayed she would accept or at least understand his affections for her. He hoped she had enough decency and warmth in her heart to consider him.

Today, he resolved to bear his heart to her. Tomorrow was the last day of school but Darien couldn't wait any longer. Right here and now, he was going to give it to her straight.

At last, she took notice of him. He smiled, thinking her to be so beautiful in his eyes. The smile he flashed her wasn't voluntary.

Tristan approached him, oblivious of his intentions.

"Okay," she said, scoffing, "I have to admit I liked having you as my partner in biology class. I thought it was going to be really obnoxious but you proved me wrong."

"Ah, well, that's good to know," the boy laughed briefly. "I'm glad to see you don't hate me. Hey, maybe we'll end up in physics class together for our senior year. I hear they have a lab: so, we should team up again."

"Yeah, that'd be nice." Tristan pulled her long bangs out of her eyes, tucking the strands of hair behind her ears. "Sorry to say this but I won't be in physics class."

"No big deal. We can still hang out like in the cafeteria or maybe study hall."

"No, you don't get it." Her voice was cold. "I'm not coming back for senior year. I decided I don't want to come back."

Darien felt like a werewolf that had been shot in the heart with a silver bullet which had been sprinkled with holy water. This was something he most certainly did not wish to hear.

"Why?" he almost demanded. "I thought you liked it here."

"I never said I did, Darien," Tristan retorted.

"Can we meet up sometime? I'd really like to keep in touch with you. I…" Conveniently, he choked up. "I think you're a cool girl."

"I'm sorry, no."

"Tristan, I think I love you." Desperation had clutched Darien now. He wanted to warm her up to his feelings but since she revealed this startling information, he saw he'd have to get on with it. "Please, listen to me…"

"Don't make a fool of yourself, Darien!" She almost looked disgusted to hear his confession. Her blue eyes hardened. "That's the stupidest thing I heard you say and that really means something considering all the idiocies you've spouted before."

"Tristan, I know it sounds crazy but it's true. I've developed feelings for you over the past few months. I think you're a very attractive, smart, low maintenance, cool-headed girl. I really like you… I would be honored if you would go out on a date with me."

"I don't feel the same way about you. I never will. I'm sorry but I'm just not interested. You're wasting your time, Darien. To be honest, I still don't see you as a friend even though we had chatted much since January."

His shock was overthrown by rising ire. Darien considered himself a relatively calm, level headed individual in his natural state. He wasn't a fighter, he was a lover. Yet now that Tristan was treating him rather bluntly and cruelly, his patience had begun to whittle away like miniscule grains of rock being beat upon and swept away by an ocean's undulations.

"How could you say that?" his voice was rising. "It's June now! I saw you five days out of the seven days of the week for months! I talked to you since the first day of the second semester! I consider you as a friend if not something more! Are you really that much of an icy, heartless bitch? Is that why I'm you're only friend in this school?"

Tristan's austere gaze didn't shatter or falter in the least bit. Unblinking, she stared back at her frazzled admirer. He definitely was irked but she didn't feel guilty or threatened by this.

"Darien, there's a reason why I'm not going to come back here," she said with no emotion in her voice. "It's none of your business either. Even if I felt the same way you did for me, I wouldn't allow you to be my boyfriend. I'm the type of girl with skeletons in her closet. If you get too close to me, you'll only end up burned. I prefer to be alone and I will stay that way."

"You are unbelievable," he shook his head heavily. "What the Hell is your issue? You know, maybe I was wrong about you. I gave you so many chances and I kept thinking you'd come out of your shell sooner or later. I was so optimistic about you too… I thought you'd have the common courtesy to say 'no thanks' for the date offer. All you said to me, basically, was 'screw you'."

"I mean it, Darien." There was some venom in her voice. "Stay away from me. You will regret it." She pushed past him, walking through the glass doors. "Have a nice life."

"Yeah, screw you too, you soulless robot!"

Her hand lashed out before she could get too far from him. It latched onto his wrist. Goose bumps formed on his skin when her flesh came into contact with his. Darien simply couldn't believe how frigid her touch was. It felt like he was touching a snow-encrusted stone. What also startled him was her powerful grip which caught him more off guard than her initial action of grabbing him.

Gasping, he looked straight into her eyes. Tristan's brows furrowed.

"Do not call me that," she hissed lowly. "You're a brainless insect."

Drawing her hand back a few seconds later, she turned her back on him. She left Darien standing there, gawking at while she walked away from the school for the final time.

(apartment – 3:30pm)

Cynthia heard the door slam violently. For a moment, she thought Blitzwing himself had entered the apartment in a fit of fury. When she exited her bedroom to investigate the cause of the angst-ridden ruckus, she caught sight of her mild-mannered brother. As soon as she had laid eyes on him, she knew something upsetting must've gotten to him.

"Darien?" she asked carefully. "What's going on?"

"Cyndi, I'm in no mood," was his prompt answer. "Please stay out of my way and do not bother me until I come out of my room."

He walked through the living room and in the small hallway where the siblings' three bedrooms and the bathroom was located. Darien briskly by passed Cynthia and turned right, entering his bedroom. The door closed behind him and everything went calm.

"Alright, I'll give you your space," Cynthia huffed. "My day wasn't stellar either."

"All this negative energy is stifling!" Amanda sighed, her voice emanating from the kitchen. "Go eat some ice cream or something to make you happy!"

"I'll be happy when the sun goes down." Cyndi headed to the kitchen where her sister was. "I'm going out to meet Blitzwing tonight." Seconds later, she entered the room. "He'll turn my frown upside down like he always does. I can't even be mad at him really."

"All I can say is 'wow'." The blonde was dipping a chocolate chip cookie into a glass full of milk. "You hooked up with that crazy man-bot in January and you're still with him." She clapped her hands, not caring she dropped her cookie into her beverage. "Bravo!"

"Oh, come on." The brunette rolled her eyes. "It's not that bad. We see each other once or twice a week. We call each other every other day. We're almost like a normal couple."

"Darien and I made a bet behind your back. I said it would last two days. He said it would last a week. Five months… We didn't see that coming."

"Thanks for the support, you little ingrates."

"I'm not an ingrate, I'm just being me." Amanda decided to change the subject. "What's up with Darien?"

"I don't know. Clearly, he's ticked but he wouldn't explain why. I'm not going to bug him and have him even madder. So, while I'm gone for a few hours with Blitzwing, do not pester Darien. Leave him be."

"You act like I'm some kind of obnoxious brat who doesn't know when to stop!"

Cynthia chuckled softly.

"Well, you kind of are, little sister," she told Mandy.

"Fine, I may be an obnoxious brat but you are a retarded daredevil," the sibling finalized. "For the eighteen years I've known you, I thought you were always this mild-mannered, paranoid, average girl. Apparently, I was wrong the whole time. You're crazy."

The "crazy" one could only smile. She shrugged.

"I guess birds of a feather flock together," said Cyndi.

"He's not really going to show up for my nineteenth birthday party next week, is he?" Amanda asked. "I swear to God, Cynthia, if he does, I will hit the roof."

"I don't know. He hasn't said much. For Darien's seventeenth birthday back in April, he sang '_Happy Birthday_' to him. He gave him a free ride too."

"I don't want a free ride or have a song sung to me. The perfect present he could ever give to me would be for him to back off and not pester me on my special day."

She saw Cyndi open up her mouth to speak out to defend Blitzwing. Mandy refused to let her say anymore. Her arm extended and she held her hand upright signaling her sister to 'talk to the hand'. Cynthia rolled her eyes.

"He does the things he does to rub me the wrong way," she resumed. "He lives to make my life miserable."

"Don't give me the hand," Cynthia interrupted. "He calls the house phone when I don't have my cell phone with me and that's the only time you have contact with him."

"The less contact, the better."

"You don't have to be so mean about it. He's not your biggest fan either but he doesn't rave about how he wants to crush you like an egg."

"Whatever. I hate him, he hates me. Let's move along to bigger and better things… You are going to see him tonight?"

"Yes. We're off to that peninsula where we came clean with our feelings back in January. That barn's getting to be a bit overused."

"Have fun. Off for a night swim?" Mandy smiled wryly. "Are you going to start wearing your yellow and blue bikini?"

"Huh, tankini is more like it…"

(9:30pm)

"'_That's life (that's life!)! That's what all the people say! You're riding high in April, shot down in May! But I know I'm gonna change that tune…_'."

Cynthia was barely paying attention to the music that was playing softly from the car radio. She only turned it on to have some noise distract her from the silence as she waited for Blitzwing to show up. The woman was slouched in the driver's seat, lazily and absentmindedly peering out the windshield. How she hated waiting for him sometimes…

"'_I've been up and down and over and out and I know one thing: each time I find myself flat on my face, I pick myself up and get back in the race! That's life..!_'."

A whiff of air exited her nostrils. Her eyes shut for a few seconds before she reopened them again. She didn't want him to rush because she knew he had to be cautious in exiting the lair for a few hours. But at the same time, Cyndi wished he'd be swift about it. Often times, she felt vulnerable waiting for him like this.

Five months had passed since the two decided to become a couple. For five months, they had met under the cover of moon and starlight. Congregating in the daylight was strictly forbidden unless he had used his holoform but this option in itself was an extreme rarity. They also couldn't really engage in typical dating patterns like a movie or dinner: but they often talked when they were together. The duo truly enjoyed each other's company yet at the back of their respective conscious, they feared discovery from their native species. Despite the obvious risks, they both agreed to stick together.

What Cynthia noticed after a few months of being in love with him was that she wasn't just seeing Blitzwing as her beau. Now, she began to see him as the kind of soul she was aiming for before she kissed him: a friend. Her discomfort level had all but dissipated and she fully believed he'd never hurt her. Due to this vanished discomfort, she obviously felt more at ease in his presence. She even called him names at times but naturally didn't mean it in the spirit of hostility. His comfort level was most likely equal to hers since his Hothead persona called her a "bitch" once. They both shrugged off whatever playful insults they threw at each other.

The five months had been a wonderful time for them. In the beginning, there were a few bumps but they had managed to stay together as they desired. As long as they remained hidden and still in love with each other, Blitzwing and Cynthia were planning to keep meeting.

To her greatest curiosity, she noticed a faint glowing red aura that seemed to envelop the car. Cynthia sat up in her seat and peered out the windshield. While the glow grew brighter, a shadow descended upon the vehicle at the same time. She looked up in the sky, seeing no clouds were blocking the moon. Actually, it was a clear, beautiful evening.

Then the organic woman smiled.

"Godzilla showed up," she laughed to herself.

She was so used to him creeping up from behind while she waited in the car that she never once suspected one of his friends was encroaching. This was an arrogant thought and Cyndi was confident he'd be the only Decepticon she'd run into at a location like this and at this hour. The encounter she had with Starscream back in February was burned into her memory but she believed she'd never have the misfortune of being almost killed by him again.

"Give it up, creep!" she yelled as she opened up her car door. "The glow is a dead give away!"

Blitzwing snapped his digits.

"Ah, jou clever femme," Random conceded.

"I learn a thing or two if you keep repeating the same action," she corrected. "When it comes down to this, you're far too repetitive."

"Maybe I vill mix it up for jou next time. I must keep jou on jour toes or I vill disappoint jou."

"Sometimes, I'm happy with you being a little predictable because it gives me one less heart attack."

"But zat is vhat I do best!"

As usual, he lowered his servo to the ground so she could step up into it. Once she did that, Blitzwing brought it back up. Just as he always did, he gave her a sweet, gentle kiss, reminding himself that she was indeed Human. Cynthia returned the affections with a kiss of her own.

"So, it didn't go as vell as jou zhought it vould," said Icy, referring to her interview.

"I vould hunt him down and burn his house to ze ground but I know vhat jou vould say to me," Hothead grumbled. "I bet zhen jou vould get ze job vith no problem."

"The Autobots would know what happened," said Cynthia. "I haven't seen or come within proximity to since February and I plan on keeping it that way. Their interest in me diminished and I don't want to be back on their radar."

"But I bet zat if jou vore a mini skirt vith knee high boots jou'd get hired in no time!" Random joked.

"I wish I could just punch you without breaking my hand…"

"Oh, vell," the blue face returned. "Vhat's done is done I suppose. Don't let it consume jou. I'm sure jou vill have anozher opportunity soon."

"Yeah, I guess. It just really sucks because that's what I've been aiming to grab for the past few years."

"I know, I can relate. Trust me, I've had my share of failures and disappointments as vell."

Life was life after all even for alien robots. Cynthia shrugged and decided to let it go. While she was with him, she didn't want the disappointment to mar her happiness.

"Good enough," she nodded. "Enough about my crappy day. How was was yours?"

"Boring as ever," said Hothead. He lowered the volume of his usually loud and proud voice. "I don't vant to sound like a sissy but it's better now zat I'm talking to jou."

"I won't tell anyone. You'll always be a tough guy in my book anyway."

With her still in his servo, Blitzwing walked over to the precipice that overlooked Lake Erie. When he made it to the cliff, he sat down with his legs hanging off the side. He placed Cynthia on his shoulder.

They looked out over the lake, staring off dreamily into the horizon. On the surface of the large body of water, they could see lights from fishing boats and other maritime vehicles.

"Hey, maybe we should back off," Cyndi suggested, feeling wary of them being spotted. "If we can see the boats on the lake, they can see the glow of your eyes."

"Cyndi, do jou dare me to do somezhing?" Random cackled.

"What..?"

"Do jou dare me to svim out a boat and scare whoever is on it? Zhey vill zhink zhere's a sea monster in ze lake!"

"Don't you dare! Let's back away from the ledge so no one sees us."

"Aww, jou're no fun! I vasn't going to kill anyone! I vas just going to pop up from underneazh ze vater and say 'hi'!"

"Then the hysterical guy calls the police and when he describes that a giant red pumpkin face said 'hi' to him, everyone will probably have a good idea of who's been causing mischief."

"Jou mean I'm famous?" He sighed. "Cyndi, jou should have told me zis earlier! Vill Humans suddenly be lining up to ask for my autograph?"

"Zhey vill be lining up to die!" Hothead fumed. "I vill sign no autographs!"

"Idiot, move back!"

"Fine!"

Cursing under his breath, Blitzwing used both colorful Earthling and Cybertronian swears. Since he first landed on Earth with Lugnut to look for Megatron, he quickly picked up some of the native lingo. The triple changer scooted away from the ledge to avoid the reality of being spotted by anyone on the boats. He moved over to the edge of the woods and sat up against a tree.

"Are jou happy now, jou nagging shrew?" he hissed.

"Yes, I am," the woman replied, "you big dumbass." Cynthia smiled, signaling she was jesting. "You're my big dumbass."

"Jou are much too comfortable vith me if jou call me names."

"Look who's talking."

"I'm ze bully. I can pick on jou because jou're ze Human in zis relationship."

"You would pick on me. Scale me up to your height and it'd be a whole different ballgame."

"Zat's vhat jou zhink." Hothead grinned. "Jou're still vrong."

"I'm not afraid of you."

He looked back at her for a few moments without saying anything to her. Then Random quickly sped up to the front, replacing Hothead.

"BOO!" he yelled in her face.

Her hair shifted as if a gust ofwind blew through her locks due to the loudness and magnitude of his voice. Cynthia screamed and visibly recoiled. She drew herself back to the point where she almost fell off his shoulder. Blitzwing quickly reacted, supporting her with his palm in order to make sure she stayed on a solid surface.

"That was unfair!" She clenched her fists and vented. "You creep!"

"Jou should have seen ze look on jour face!" Blitzwing howled in laughter. "I vish I had a camera! Jou still are a big chicken!"

"I am not and you know it!"

"Zhen join me for a svim in ze lake. Zhere are no sharks in ze vater! Don't vorry, I have no problems vith punching a fish in ze face! Do jou even know how to swim?"

"I don't want to swim. I want to enjoy my night with you without you pestering me to my shattering point. I don't have a swimsuit with me either."

"Who said jou needed a svimsuit?"

Conveniently, Cynthia found herself blushing up a storm. She tried her hardest to chain up a sly smile but it broke free. Her arms folded across her chest and she turned her back on him.

"You rascal," she tried to verbally discipline him. "Shame on you."

"Don't be shy," he giggled.

"Shut up." She was smiling though.

"Yes, ignore zat little cretin," Icy took over. "Jou're a lady… Unless jou get mad."

"I only get mad with you when you push my buttons. Unfortunately, you know how to do that like a pro."

"Admit it, jou vouldn't vant anyone else to be better at zat zhan I."

Yes, he was one hundred percent correct there. There really was no one else she wanted to be so skilled to annoy her than Blitzwing. Naturally, he got on her nerves just like any other organic male did in a relationship with his girlfriend. There were times when she wanted to punch him in all three of his faces. But in the end, Cynthia really couldn't stay mad at him for too long. Just as he got her irked, he always made her smile.

"As much as I hate to admit it," she resumed, "you're right. You rub me the wrong way but you make me so happy too. I still have no regrets."

Blitzwing looked both pleased and proud with her words. He brought his faceplate closer to her. The warmth she radiated from her fleshy body felt comfortable and toasty against his cool metal hide.

"Ah, I see," he said softly. "It's one of zhose 'love-hate' ordeals."

"Not so much," Cyndi reminded him. "It was like that before we came clean. Let it be known that I do love you more than I hate you…" She wrinkled her nose. "I don't hate you at all. What would I be doing here if I hated you?"

"I don't know. It vould be avfully stupid of jou, zat's for sure. And if I hated you, I vouldn't know vhy jou'd still be alive." He gave her a ginger peck on the side of her head. "So if jou ever have doubts, remember zat."

"That's so romantic..."

Blitzwing grinned. From the beginning, he loved pestering her. Months later, it still wasn't old. Truthfully, he hoped he'd be able to playfully tease her for the next "x" amount of years as long as they remained together. This organic really was making herself at home in his spark.

(…)

The intruder didn't dare to take another step closer. He had taken care in making sure he was always a step or two behind his quarry to avoid detection. If he had been rooted out, it was very likely he might be ending up to fight for his spark to pulsate another day. The discolored, coarse looking metal on his employer's neck had attested to the potential brutality he was risking by undergoing this operation.

Although the trees and other forms of foliage obscured some of his sight, the mismatched Cybertronian activated his thermal scanners to get a perfect confirmation. Indeed, there were two life forms together: one being his own species, the other being of organic origin. He was quite sure there was no other interspecies couple that had been thriving under the veil of night.

"I have a visual," he said gruffly yet softly into his comm.

"You do?" the velvety voice replied on the other end of the line. "Can you get in closer?"

"I don't want to end up like you. I'm not afraid of him but I don't want to end up bleeding everywhere."

"You're such a sparkling. Fine, then stay where you are. What do you see exactly?"

Lockdown peered at the couple from under the cover of the woods. As far as he could tell, Blitzwing's back was facing him. Faintly, he could see the shape of a Human female sitting on his shoulder. Undoubtedly, he knew it was Cynthia.

"It's the girl you spoke of," he dully reported. "I wouldn't know who else it would be because she's sitting so calmly on his shoulder."

There was an uneasy silence on Starscream's end. Lockdown ignored this and continued to spy on the pair. He wasn't even doing this for Starscream's sake anymore. Now, he was only watching them to satisfy his curiosity. The bounty hunter still had a hard time trying to grasp the reality before him.

"I…" The seeker cleared his throat. "I would order you to kill the maggot and then drag him back here for prompt punishment but I'm not going to do that. I want you to provide video evidence of this unholy union so that Megatron will become fully convinced. I haven't won his trust… But this will find me in his favor once more." There was another pause that lasted a few seconds. "Let me know when you are en route to the base."

Starscream cut his communications to Lockdown.

"Nothing personal, Blitzwing," Lockdown whispered. "Business must keep booming."


	27. Deviant Sinner

**Thanks for the reviews and fave guys! Okay, so hopefully, things will start to get interesting in this story. This is definitely the darkest chapter I've written so far for this story (for you morbid people like me, don't worry, there'll be more disturbing stuff to come) and it is probably the most violent too. So be prepared... The song I've been listening to for writing this chapter is called '**The Curse' **by Disturbed. It really helped me write this chapter out to be honest... Yes, I listen to angry, violent, eardrum-rupturing music. Surprised? Please review and enjoy! :)**

Chapter 27 Deviant Sinner

(Decepticon base – 2:00am)

Blitzwing's optics focused on the shape of an owl that sat above the wooden beams that supported the entrance of the mine. The nocturnal avian's cold yellow eyes stared back at him sullenly. It didn't seem startled by the giant that was looking right back at it. More than anything else, it seemed like it wanted to engage in a staring contest with him. Its seeming inability to blink further strengthened that notion.

"Vhat are jou looking at, jou miserable beast?" Hothead shook a fist at the owl.

"Maybe jou are staring at me because… jou like me?" Random asked. He cocked his helm to the side. "Jou are a very curious bird."

The owl imitated him, tilting its head. The childish personality laughed in amusement. It ruffled its dark feathers which consisted of the color combinations of browns, a touch of gray and some black. The owl's curved, ivory colored beak parted and unleashed the typical, ever classical 'who' call.

"Who?" Blitzwing repeated. "I am talking about jou!"

The predatory bird stretched out its large, magnificent wings and silently took flight. It flew over his helm and towards the dark woods that surrounded the lair. Blitzwing watched it fly away until it landed in a pine tree a few hundred feet away from where he stood.

"Zat vas unusual," Icy noted.

Shrugging his broad shoulders, Blitzwing dismissed the encounter with the local wildlife. He looked away from the owl and turned his optics to the dark tunnel that led into the Earth. Casually, the Decepticon mech went through the entrance and began his trek down the corridor.

The glow from his optics cast a faint light in the dark hall, giving him some luminescence to navigate with. He saw shadows of things that weren't there which were illusions caused by the light of his optics and random rocks and wooden beams that supported the craggy hallway. If he was a sparkling, he would've been scared out of his wits with walking down this dim corridor all by his lonesome. Now that he was an adult, nothing in the dark scared him. Rather, he scared other souls in the dark.

As he traversed through the tunnel, Blitzwing couldn't help to sense that something was amiss. He couldn't quite put his digit on it but he could almost feel that the atmosphere in the lair was different. He couldn't hear Lugnut rambling about how glorious and divine Megatron was. He couldn't hear Starscream mumbling to himself, swearing revenge or concocting plots. Neither did he hear Megatron commanding Starscream to make himself useful. All seemed unnaturally calm even more so than usual. The triple changer knew that at this hour, usually his comrades were recharging but he still couldn't shake off the uneasiness.

At last, he made it to the end of the insufferably long corridor. The hallway opened up into a spacious room. In that room, he could see the three Decepticons he had shared the mine with. There was a fourth being there that he was familiar with but didn't frequent the lair much. As far as he could tell, all four of the Cybertronians were looking directly at him.

Blitzwing halted in his footsteps. He eyed them all, half expecting an explanation of some sort. The atmosphere became much more oppressive than what he had initially sensed. His gut instincts screamed at him to brace himself for the worst.

"May I ask vhat ze meaning of zis is, my lord?" he asked carefully.

"You have absolutely no right to ask any questions here," Megatron replied cruelly. "If there is anyone here who will be asking the questions, it is I."

He couldn't help to not feel extremely nervous right then and there. Blitzwing held his ground. He didn't want to look too competitive or cowardly.

"What you have done is simply unforgivable," Lugnut condemned him. "You are a disgrace to our great leader!"

"I don't understand vhat is going on here!" Hothead yelled. "Tell me and maybe I can answer ze questions!"

"Do not raise your voice at anyone!" Megatron declared imperiously. "You shut all three of your hideous mouths up! You're so lucky I have not killed you as soon as you walked into the room!"

Even the boisterous Hothead shut himself up. He retreated, pushing Icy up to the front to bear the full wrath of Megatron. Somewhere in his helm, Random was whimpering like a puppy. Blitzwing attempted to hold his helm up high and not show any fear before everyone. He knew that if they had sensed the accumulating terror in him, they would rip him to pieces like a pride of lions with a water buffalo carcass.

"Blitzwing," the silver lord continued, "I want answers and I want them now."

"I vill do vhat I can and answer zem, sir," he said.

"This'll be good… I can tell."

The head 'Con walked over to Blitzwing. As he approached him, Blitzwing could've sworn he saw his life flashing before his optics. This, obviously, was not a good sign in the least bit. His first instinct was to fight off his potential attacker but it was his leader that was approaching him. Blitzwing knew better than to raise his servo to Megatron. It was unspeakable. Right then and there, he knew things weren't going to be pretty. The purple and beige bot braced himself for whatever was going to transpire.

Megatron stopped mere inches away from him. He looked down at his underling, his optics blazing like flaming oil.

"M-my lord..?"

Before Blitzwing could utter another word, Megatron punched him directly in his face. He buckled and brought his servos up to his face. The triple changer groaned in agony but the superior bot wasn't deterred. He raised his balled up servo again and struck his minion again, this time, in the side of his helm. The jet-tank hybrid was sent reeling away from him before he crashed into the stony wall of the base. He slumped to the ground, curled up in pain.

"Ooh, that's gotta hurt!" Lockdown cringed slightly. "He's going to feel that in the morning if he pulls through."

"Let justice reign supreme!" Lugnut threw his arms up into the air as if he was worshipping Megatron. "Punish him, Master!"

Starscream was deathly silent. His optics were narrowed cruelly and he was completely detached to his brother's pain. His arms were folded across his chest and he only watched as Megatron approached an incapacitated Blitzwing.

"Me-Megatron!" Blitzwing pleaded. "Have mercy! Vhat have I done? Please, let me explain myself!" His helm was ringing and he could've sworn some components in his processor were rattling around as if they had come loose from the impact. His whole body was trembling in fear. "I beg jou! I am jour servant!"

"You are an insult to my insurrection," Megatron hissed. His servo clamped around Blitzwing's face. The triple changer screamed through his muzzle. "You're equal to an Autobot in my optics now."

He lifted him up, dangling him off the ground. Blitzwing flailed like a fish on a hook, desperate to try to escape. With his available servo, Megatron punched him right in his metal stomach. The overlord drew his fist back and rammed it into his abdomen yet again.

"Disgusting," he spat.

Megatron loosened his hold on Blitzwing. The smaller bot collapsed to the ground as if he was a lifeless corpse. He moaned in agony, sounding like a zombie. A cough escaped from his twitching body, bringing up some energon up to his mouth. The pink blood began to seep from his gaping mouth and pooled around his head. His normal optic was widened in sheer terror. He was both physically and psychologically overwhelmed by the blunt brutality of the past few moments.

"Get up!" Megatron commanded.

He kicked him in his agonized belly. Blitzwing bellowed in excruciating pain but Megatron didn't feel his spark soften with the triple changer's woes. Once more, he kicked him but this time in his chest. When this happened, a spray of energon shot out of his mouth and doused the tyrant's stabilizing servo.

"Get up now!" the Decepticon lord was absolutely ruthless in handling him. "You miserable, pitiful, abominable excuse for a Decepticon, I command you to rise up and face me like a bot!"

"I CAN'T!" Blitzwing screamed. He slapped his servo onto the tip of Megatron's inorganic foot. "Mercy, my lord! MERCY!"

The silver titan did not believe in forgiveness. It was a doctrine and virtue of the weak. It was a code of the Autobots. Last time he checked, he nor his underlings were affiliated with Autobots. According to his machinations, he was in a war with them. His penultimate goal was to have them all wiped off the face of the universe where he'd then be able to do what he saw fit without their interference.

Megatron looked straight into Blitzwing's optics. Undeniably, he could see the sheer terror in them. This was no faux display of humility before him. The tone of the minion's voice, the expression on the dominant face and the very look of his optics assured Megatron this was all real. He had been reduced to a dog cowering at its master's boot.

"Please…" Blitzwing's voice sounded pitifully weak. Another cough wracked his aching frame, spewing a few more droplets of pink energon onto Megatron's soaked stabilizing servos. "Vhat have I…done?"

"I think you have a very good reason as to why I'm punishing you," Megatron retorted. "I can almost smell her on you, Blitzwing."

'Her'. Instantly, he knew what this was all about. His spark was about ready to fizzle out for eternity when he realized what he was hinting to. At this point, he knew he had been caught and he obviously had been hooked well. His mind raced, trying to figure out just how anyone could've detected his secret. Blitzwing was fairly confident he had done a good job with covering it all up…

"Watch the monitor and tell me what you see, Blitzwing," said Megatron. "If this is indeed some horrible misunderstanding, please, step up and defend yourself."

Blitzwing hacked up a bubbly mass of pink energon. The only part of his chassis that he could move were his optics. With growing terror, he fixed his optics onto the giant computer screen that was hung up on the wall.

A grainy but discernable video transmission began to play. The camera was focused on him from behind. It zoomed in on him, confirming his identity. Then it zoomed in on Cynthia who was sitting on his shoulder. He could try to lie about who the woman with him was but Blitzwing had a fairly good idea Starscream knew this was Cynthia.

"No..." he whimpered, his face contorting to an expression of spiritual agony. "No, it's all a lie! Zis can't be happening! No, no, no! It's fake!"

Then a kiss of theirs was shown for everyone in the room to see. It was impossible to deny its credibility at this point. Their fates had been sealed.

The transmission then cut after the video played for about twenty five seconds. His optics turned to the fourth bot. Blitzwing's fury swiftly built up like a raging brush fire. Lockdown was the one that had betrayed him and Cynthia to Megatron. The bounty hunter was the only Cybertronian that had known what was going on.

"JOU!" Hothead screamed. He almost sounded demonic. A small stream of energon flowed from his mouth and coursed down his chin. "Jou are ze cause of all zis!" His fury overrode his pain. "I vill tear jour spark out!"

He sprang up onto his metal feet and lunged for Lockdown. Megatron simply grabbed one of his stabilizing servos in midair. A second later, he swung him as if he was trying out a baseball bat. He let go of Blitzwing and let him sail through the air again. Once more, he crashed into a wall, knocking bits of rock off and shaking the entire room.

"Jou fragger," he cursed. "As soon as I get out of zis, jou're dead! I svear I vill make jou pay, Lockdown!"

"Ah," Megatron darkly grinned, "so volatile. This is one of the reasons why I had accepted you into my inner circle, Blitzwing. You're a killer at spark. I have always admired your sharp processor too. You really do make a fine warrior. It's just a pity that you have obviously softened to startling levels."

Blitzwing only remained silent. He knew he was caught. There was no way he could avoid trying to disprove him otherwise. Neither did he wish to lie for fear of making his leader even more infuriated than he already was.

"Starscream's suspicions have been proven correct," Megatron went on. "He had struck a deal with Lockdown and had him go spy on you while you went out for your solo 'Allspark fragment searches'. He managed to capture video evidence of you with a Human femme sitting on your shoulder without a care in the world… And don't even try to deny your relationship with her because you were recorded kissing her."

Starscream was in on this too. Blitzwing clenched his teeth so hard they were ready to shatter within his metal gums. His hateful gaze shifted from Lockdown to his former best friend. The triple changer could see the bland expression Starscream wore. This sent him into a frenzy when he saw this blank slate. He roared in unbridled anger.

"Damn jou, Starscream!" Blitzwing screeched. As much as he wanted to stand back up, he couldn't. Megatron's powerful punches had severely hindered his own strength. "Damn jou to ze Pit!"

As before, Starscream said nothing. He didn't frown or smile. There was no emotion displayed on his faceplate.

"Yes, you have utterly lost your composure and subtlety," the silver Decepticon observed. "I know the truth. You are in love with her. She is in love with you. How cute."

"Megatron," Blitzwing pleaded, "please, don't hurt her! Leave her be! I svear, no one knows about it!"

"I must say that she must be quite the Human for her to catch your optic. She must also be quite the reject amongst her own race if she returned the affection to you. As enraged as I am, I am intrigued by this twisted abomination that you call a romance."

"Please, I vill do anyzhing! Don't hurt Cyndi!"

"Answer my questions truthfully and she might be spared."

"Done," Icy nodded.

Blitzwing attempted to at least sit up but he was so weak, all he could do was lie curled up whilst looking up at Megatron.

"How long has this been going on behind my back?" he interrogated.

"Ve confessed our feelings for each ozher in January."

"Not bad but you can't hide secrets from me forever as you have seen for yourself. Does anyone else know about these little trysts of yours?"

"Lockdown knew."

Starscream glared at the fallen ninja bot. Lockdown pretended he was ignoring everything. He really didn't care that he withheld the information and pretended he didn't know about the couple. The seeker didn't intimidate him like Megatron did.

"Who else?" he pressed.

"Cynzhia has two siblings," Blitzwing revealed. "Zhey know ve are togezher. No one else knows. I svear."

"I have one final question… Do you love her?"

There was no point in hiding it now.

"Yes. Zat's vhy I humbly implore jou to spare her. Alzhough I am in love vith her, I still vish to serve jou."

"I will decide that in time. You must pay for the lies, Blitzwing. I do not see you as the traitorous type but I don't take kindly to little secrets like these. If it was some femme within our ranks, I would've given you my blessing. I would've allowed you to bond with her and have sparklings with her. Instead, you chose an organic whose race is united with the Autobots to defeat us! I am surprised it even lasted this long behind my back!"

"Vell, ve are in love," Random chuckled weakly. He coughed up more energon. "She's my favorite squishy!"

"Since you speak so highly of her, I must meet her myself. I'm sure she'll turn out to be as splendid as you say she is, Blitzwing."

Blitzwing could hear and sense the malevolence in Megatron's voice. A new surge of fear swept over him like a tsunami. Now, he was scared for her life rather than his own.

"Don't kill her!" Hothead commanded.

"Did I just hear the demanding tone in your voice?" Megatron glowered.

"No! My lord, I am not challenging jou! I just don't vant jou to kill her!"

"I alone will decide if she will live or not." He turned his back him. Megatron directed his attention to the bounty hunter. "Lockdown, fetch Cynthia and her siblings. Bring them to me. The siblings must accompany her because they know too much."

"I'm on it, Megatron," Lockdown stated.

"Please!" Icy wailed. "Don't hurt her!"

His desperate pleas fell on deaf audio receptors. Megatron disregarded his words and walked away from him. The Decepticon leader walked over to Starscream who stood in between Lugnut and Lockdown.

"Take that scum to his quarters," he instructed his second in command. "I don't want him screaming and causing a ruckus while I am talking to the girl and her family."

"Yes, my liege," Starscream bowed at the waist.

"Oh and Starscream…" He nodded his helm. "Good job on bringing this matter to me. Your suspicions have been proven correct." Then he jabbed him with the tip of a finger. "But remember that I am watching you. Do not get too comfortable."

"I understand. A million thanks, Megatron."

Megatron moved out of Starscream's way, allowing the seeker to approach Blitzwing's side. The dark pink and gray jet didn't tear his optics away from his little brother who lied motionlessly and despondently on the ground. Blitzwing's own optics focused on him after he looked away from Megatron who was exiting the room.

Seconds later, Starscream was towering above Blitzwing. The two refused to look away from each other. Their stares were intense and fixed.

"I hate jou," the triple changer snapped. "Jou have ruined my happiness again. Ze next time jou slip up, somehow, somevay, I vill kill jou vithout hesitation. I vill not forgive jou or forget zis, Starscream."

"Recharge," Starscream said simply. "Dream of good times gone by."

With the swift and precise motion of his stabilizing servo, Starscream kicked Blitzwing in the side of his metal cranium. The powerful blow had rendered him unconscious and unresponsive to the world around him. Then the air commander knelt down gathered him into his arms. Standing back up to his full height, he carried him off to his quarters.

(Preston apartment – 3:00am)

Although it was three o'clock in the morning, Cynthia didn't feel like going to sleep just yet. She felt peaceful and relaxed but necessarily didn't feel any sensations of sleepiness closing in on her. That serenity and content laxness kept her awake and not quite ready to surrender to slumber. Since she had arrived home nearly fifteen minutes earlier, she shut herself up into her room to avoid walking around the apartment and wake up her brother and sister.

Her earbuds were in her ear canals, listening to music but she barely paid attention to the noise. The thoughts that ran through her head tuned out the auditory disturbance. She was lying on her stomach on her bed, looking at the digital alarm clock on the nightstand. Cyndi wasn't bored as she watched as a one turned into a two which resulted in three o two.

Then she rolled over onto her back and stared at the bare white ceiling above her. Her eyes focused on nothing in particular. Eyelids became a little heavier and she decided to shut them.

"He's right," she talked to herself. "Life's life. But how many strikes do you get before you're out?"

Her head turned to the side, spotting the perpetually empty side of her bed. As long as she was going to stay with Blitzwing, it was always going to be barren. There were certainly no promises of marriage or even children in the future. Of course, she thought it was much too early to even think about these things in a five month romance but as long as she remained in love with him, Cynthia couldn't help to not think about them. If she had fallen in love with a man, someone of her own species, it would be no issue if he had given her his hand and heart in consent. Yes, she would have Blitzwing but she would be denied of the other things the Human heart and psyche craved. She figured, in the long run, she'd grin and bear with the complications. As long as she had his love, it was all that really mattered.

"Never regret it."

Exhaling, she pulled the earbuds out of her ears. Cynthia sat up on her bed and looked out her open window. A soft breeze billowed the curtains and forced a wave of fresh, pleasant late spring air into the room. On the horizon beyond the window frame, she could see the lights of Detroit.

Knock, knock, knock.

It was a dull, rapping noise that sounded three times in rhythm. As far as she could tell, it didn't originate from her room. Cynthia exited her room and looked up and down the hallway, trying to identify the source of the disturbance.

"Hello."

Cyndi almost slapped her hand to her forehead when she discovered it was someone at the door. Then she stopped herself, wondering what someone would be doing knocking on her door at three in the morning. A million and one possibilities ran through her head as to who it could be. It could be a burglar, police officer, serial killer, hobo, lunatic… Yet somehow, she didn't find any of these to be likely candidates.

"Hello, is anyone there?"

She listened to see if he had an accent. There was none.

Cautiously and quietly, she walked out of the hall and crossed into the living room. After walking to the other side of the living room where the door was, she paused.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"Cynthia, open up the door," the man ordered.

"I said, who is it? Do I know you?"

"See for yourself."

A moment later, to her greatest terror, the man literally walked through the door like he was a ghost. Cynthia was so spooked she almost tripped over her boots that were on the floor. Instantly, she recognized him. She never could forget her encounter with him at the Steel Star nor what he looked like.

"Oh my God," she heaved. "Lockdown!"

"The one and only," his Human disguise grinned.

"W-w-what are you doing here? You frightened the living Hell out of me!"

"I need you to come with me."

"For what?"

"I'll tell you along the way. There's no time to explain with you standing here. You might want to wake up your sister and brother too."

Cyndi's defenses bristled like quills on a porcupine. Her gaze hardened into a skeptical and disbelieving look. She took a step back.

"What do you want with Amanda and Darien?" she demanded. "Why are you here bothering me? It's three in the morning!"

"I can't help it," he replied simply. "I was ordered to come fetch you and your siblings. I have to obey."

"Leave. I can contact Blitzwing whenever I want to and when I call him to tell him you're harassing me, he'll tear your head off."

"See, that's the issue. He can't help you right now. He's… unavailable."

She wasn't fond of where this was going in the least bit. Instantly, she assumed the worst. Anger and concern built up in her.

"You son of a bitch!" the woman cursed, raising her voice. "What did you do to him? Tell me the truth!"

"Megatron found out he was seeing you," Lockdown revealed. "He confronted Blitzwing about it and he confessed."

In all her life, she never felt so much horror in her than at that exact moment. Goose bumps swelled up on her skin and a chill ran down her spine. She could've sworn she could feel white streaks develop in her hair out of sheer terror. Her heart raced at a rate that was equivalent to her running while she just stood there, gawking at the bounty hunter.

"No…" she shook her head. "No, that's not true! We hid it all so well!" Her eyes blazed with fury. "You had something to do with this! You told Megatron!"

"Starscream sent me out," he explained. "I spied and I reported what I saw."

"You mother fu-…"

"Sis, what's going on?" Darien's voice sounded.

Both Cynthia and Lockdown shifted their attention to the boy who was standing on the other side of the living room. Darien's complexion paled a little when they looked back at him.

"Kid, you're wanted," said Lockdown. "Wake Blondie up and let's get outta here."

"What did you do to him?" Cynthia almost screamed. She didn't want her neighbors to listen in on this matter. "Give me answers now!"

"Wait, who is this dude?" Darien pointed at the holoform. "He sounds familiar but…"

"Hey, one at a time!" said Lockdown. "Megatron will explain it all…"

"MEGATRON?" The boy was shocked out of his mind. "We have to go meet Megatron? What the Hell? We're gonna die!"

"This is a death trap!" said Cynthia. "Let me talk to Blitzwing first!"

"I can't," the tattooed faux Human said with ire building up in his voice. "Megatron beat the slag out of him and he's unconscious."

Cynthia's lower lip twitched. Her jaws gaped like the mouth of a venus flytrap. Tears of anger, fear and woe bust loose. Her face turned to a deep red very quickly.

"Oh my God!" she cried. "What did he do to him?"

"Megatron had to wrench some answers out of him by throwing him around," Lockdown confessed. "He's okay, he's just unconscious and bleeding. The loon stuck his neck out for you and he begged Megatron to go easy on you."

Without hesitation, Cyndi knew she was going to stick up for him as he had done for her according to Lockdown's testimony. Genuinely, she was terrified by the prospect of meeting the original Decepticon himself but she felt it was cowardly and inappropriate to abandon him to face Megatron's fury alone. She was in love with him as he was with her after all. Not only that, Blitzwing was in pain and she couldn't abide by that.

"Wait, so the big guy knows about your secret?" Darien was starting to become flustered. "Aw, Christ! We're screwed!"

"Why is everyone talking so loud?" the last member of the summoned group pouted. "I'm trying to get my beauty sleep!"

Rubbing her eyes, Amanda entered the living room. Once she removed her hands from her face, she spotted Lockdown in his holoform. She stared at him for a few moments, trying to process everything that was going on. The blonde had woken up from a dead sleep and she was still groggily unaware of the world around her.

"Who're you?" she yawned.

"Remember me, Blondie?" Lockdown grinned menacingly. "We met a few months ago. You had to call in Blitzwing to vouch for you and your brother."

She blankly stared at him, still trying to interpret his words. A few seconds went by before Mandy finally reacted. When she did, she was just about as mortified as Darien.

"Lockdown!" the youngest female blurted, remembering his name.

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous," he rolled his eyes. "Now that you're all up, we have to go now."

"You bet I'm going right now," Cynthia said angrily. "I'm not letting Blitzwing going through this alone. Yeah, I'm scared out of my mind but I'm not going to curl up into a ball and die."

"Wha? What?" Mandy sounded borderline stupid. "What is going on? What did that idiot get himself into now?"

"Megatron found out about Cynthia and Blitzwing," Darien broke the news to her. "Megatron wants to meet the three of us… I guess he wants us because we knew about their romance."

"Screw that!" Amanda stamped her foot. "This is not my fight! I'm not the chick that fell in love with Blitzwing!"

"You have no choice," Lockdown said severely. "Megatron is not one to keep waiting. He specifically ordered me to pick the three of you up and bring you to the Decepticon base."

"This is not fair! I shouldn't have to die because my sister has a horrible taste in boyfriends! As far as I'm concerned, Blitzwing can get himself out of this mess."

"Amanda," Cynthia spoke to her solemnly, "please… Don't do this for Blitzwing. Do this for me. Do this for Darien. Do this for yourself. Do you want to live?"

She wet her lips. Mandy was having a dreadful time of trying to grasp what was going on and accepting its awful reality. Her pale green eyes jumped from Cynthia, to Lockdown, to Darien and then back to her sister once more. Her breathing became more erratic and she started to show signs of visible panic.

"Mandy, just do it," Darien urged. "Let's just go. Maybe we'll get out alive if we just go with the flow."

Amanda whimpered. Then she swallowed hard. Looking back at Lockdown, she told herself she wasn't going to act like a coward in front of him again.

"O-okay…" Mandy answered. "I'm doing it for you guys. But you owe me big time. I don't want to fight or I'll get into even more trouble."

"Alright, take us to see Megatron," Cynthia almost ordered Lockdown.

"I hope you're not that bold when you meet the head honcho himself," said Lockdown as he turned his back on them. "He doesn't take kindly to sassiness or defiance of any kind. He'll do worse things to all three of you than what he did to Blitzwing. Come down to the parking lot where I am waiting and we'll go."

The illusion dissolved before their very eyes, leaving an empty space that was once occupied. Everything was eerily and awkwardly silent.

Amanda and Darien focused on their eldest sibling. She stared right back at them, seeing the fear in their fragile young eyes. Her motherly, protective feelings were stirred up when she saw this in them.

"Don't worry," she tried to soothe them. "If anyone out of the three of us is going to die, it's me. I highly doubt he will kill you two."

"Cyndi, this is Megatron we're talking about here," Darien sounded like he was in agony. "It'll be through divine intervention if we get out of this alive."

The oldest out of the three siblings unlocked the door. She turned the door knob.

"Stand strong, you guys," she urged. "Don't speak unless you're spoken to. Let me deal with this. He wants me the most. I can't believe what I'm saying but you better heed what Lockdown said."

"What if he does decide to kill us?" Amanda was on the verge of crying.

"You shouldn't die for knowing a secret. I will make whatever deal I have to in order to make sure the two of you and Blitzwing will make it out of this alright. The news I got about Blitzwing… was not very pleasant. Someday, I knew this would become a reality. It was only a matter of time. With the way I see it…" Cynthia pushed the door open. "Better now than living in fear later."


	28. Dragons' Den

**Thank you for the reviews, my lovelies :) Okay, so if anyone remembers what happened in LIAL, you can guess what'll happen in this chapter. This is pretty much a revamped version of what happened in LIAL. Sorry to spoil it but this was one of the things I decided to keep from my old story. Hopefully you'll like it more than the older chapter. This and the next chapter will be shorter than the previous chapters but I hope that doesn't mean it's automatically crappier. Anyway, please enjoy the update!**

Chapter 28 Dragons' Den

(Decepticon base – 3:30am)

Nothing was really said as Lockdown chauffeured the three organics who were sitting inside him. Darien remained as silent as an abandoned graveyard, Amanda whimpered every so often and Cynthia occasionally inquired of what was to come for her and her brother and sister. Since she was the only one really talking, the bounty hunter chatted with her. He figured she wasn't so intimidated by him because she was so conditioned to being in close proximity to a dangerous bot on a weekly basis. Not only that, she was feeling too vengeful and protective to be afraid since she learned Blitzwing had been brutalized.

He drove down an overgrown, dirt road that was leading deep into the woodlands situated some miles outside of Detroit. One would assume that as they were driving through such a haven of nature, they'd rightly come across some residents of the woods. They had been driving in the woods for about five minutes and there was absolutely no sign of animal life. Deer didn't jump across the road like they were accustomed to when a vehicle approached. The glowing eyes of opossum or raccoons on the side of the road didn't reflect in the chilling red headlights. It was almost as if no fauna were in this area because they had vacated. The reason for their exodus was the fact that there were creatures far more terrifying than any earthly predator residing in these woods alongside them.

"I'm half expecting a clan of inbred hillbillies to jump out from a tree and club us to death," Darien shuddered as he looked out the back left passenger window.

"Oh, please," Lockdown grunted. "I'm scarier than anything else in these woods."

"Ain't that the truth," Amanda mumbled quietly.

"How good of you to open up your mouth, Blondie."

"My name is Amanda! Learn it! I don't appreciate it."

"Yeah, I wouldn't like being called 'Blondie' either," Darien noted. "That was the name of Hitler's dog."

"Oh, isn't that nice?"

"A little heads up," Lockdown redirected his attention to Cynthia, "Megatron had Blitzwing isolated to his quarters so he wouldn't be present while you talk to him. So, don't expect your sweetspark to try to stick up for you. He did all that while Megatron abused him."

"Regardless, I want to see him for myself," the eldest organic asserted. "I at least want to let him know he's not in this alone."

"Suit yourself. But you'll only lower your chances of survival. You can say the boss isn't so thrilled to find out about you. You better make this first impression worth it. If not, you're dead."

Cyndi grimly accepted this possible reality. She pulled her hair behind her right ear. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she nodded her head in solemn acceptance.

"I know what I've gotten myself into," she said to both the robot and her siblings. "But if I'm going to die, it's not going to be rolled over onto my back like a dog. Yeah, I'm a coward. But I can't afford to be one in this situation."

Moments later, Lockdown slowed down. His three passengers felt a surge of fear hold their hearts captive, making them skip a beat. The car doors swept open, obliging the Humans to exit. Without a second to waste, they hopped out of their seats, eager and relieved to be freed from within him. The muscle car then morphed into an anthropomorphic figure. He towered above the family, gazing back at them as if he was getting one last good look at them.

"We're here," he announced. Lockdown's hooked arm extending to a tiny hill. "Up that hill, you'll find Megatron's humble abode. Follow me and I'll take you directly to the bot himself." He started to walk up the hill. Then he stopped and turned his helm to them. "Don't even think about bolting either. I will catch you."

Amanda groaned internally since for the briefest second, she considered fleeing into the darkness of the forest. Darien held her hand to dissuade her from doing such a thing even though she told no one of this plot. She looked at him, appearing to have the look and mannerisms of a trapped animal.

"Stand strong," Cynthia encouraged them. "If you show them you're weak, they'll break you, literally I'm sure."

"Easy for you to say!" Mandy lashed out. "You've been chilling out with one of them since the January!"

"Sis, now's not the time," the boy reminded her. "Let's just follow the big creepy muscle car." Amanda was starting to cry again. Her brother refused to let go of her and he led her along like a sheep tied up to a rope. "That's all we can do now."

Purposefully, Lockdown slowed his pace down since his gait was greater than that of the organics he had retrieved. He didn't want to place too much distance between them and himself just in case one of them did try to escape their fate. The bounty hunter had a pretty strong feeling which of the three would be the most inclined to run off screaming into the wilderness. He glanced over his shoulder at this suspect, resolving to keep an optic on her. She had his attention…

Just like the duration of the ride to the doorstep of the Decepticon base, captor and captives said nothing to each other. Uneasy calm had held victory between the two parties and neither was really interesting in removing the silence. They walked up the hill together, taking a step closer to the mouth of the mine where Lockdown was leading them to.

"So, you have your will written out, Blondie?" Lockdown teased Amanda.

"Oh, SCREW YOU!" she suddenly roared at him. "I wasn't planning on dying tonight, alright? I planned on partying for the next twenty years of my life, marrying an actor or someone with a lot of cash, living in comfort and wealth and then dying as a rich old hag! I had absolutely no idea all this chaos would unfold before me! This is not my fight! I am only tagging along because of the death threat and the fact my sister needs me by her side! I asked for none of this! So cut me a break and rust in a corner!"

Lockdown laughed heartily. When he did this, Amanda's deathly stare somehow hardened and became even more severe.

"You are so full of zip, aren't you?" he said degradingly. "I almost forgot how much of a firecracker you are, Mandy. You act like such a chicken when you're confronted with new things but then you become a different person when you're pushed into a corner. Are you sure you don't have multiple personalities like Blitzwing?"

"Do not compare me to him, you Boba Fett rip off!" she shook a fist at him.

"Mandy, shut up," Darien said in a tired voice. "Drop it, okay? If you don't zip your lips, Megatron's gonna crush you like a cockroach."

"If I get out of this alive, I will have the last laugh!"

"I'm so scared," taunted Lockdown.

He stopped shortly with the Humans almost running into him. Finally, they had made it to the crest of the hill. Immediately, the siblings could see the entrance to the seemingly abandoned mine. It was completely dark and none of them could see what lingered within it.

"We're at the front door," he informed them. "Everyone's inside waiting for you."

"Wait, who's everyone?" Cynthia wondered. "I know it's Megatron and Blitzwing…"

"Starscream and Lugnut are waiting for you as well. You know, everyone's so excited to meet you, Cyndi. Since you are the one who caught Blitzwing's spark, they all want to see you for themselves. You've already met Starscream but Lugnut and Megatron have yet to see you." He entered the mine. "Come on. We have nowhere to go but forward."

(…)

The inevitable, harrowing moment had finally arrived for Cynthia. Once she and her brother and sister had followed Lockdown through the tunnel, they had entered a lit up, spacious room. Chills had gripped her entire body even though it was almost summer. She looked around the room briefly, looking for the other three Decepticons who were awaiting her audience.

Cynthia needed to look no further when she saw one of them. Standing in the middle of the room was a regal-looking, proud, intimidating, hulking, silver robot. His vicious optics peered at her with maliciously. The mech's servos were folded behind his back as if he was waiting semi-patiently.

When Megatron had seen her, he unfolded his servos and shifted his arms across his chest. None of the ferocity in his stare had diminished but he now he continued to gaze at her with a curious, calculating expression.

"Ah," he said at last, "you are the one. You are the one who has entranced my loyal warrior. I've been earnestly expecting you, Miss Preston."

Amanda's knees were shaking violently and they felt like they were made of water to her. Darien was beginning to sweat profusely as he gawked at the Decepticon lord. Cynthia's pulse heightened considerably and she felt as if her vocal cords had been ripped out of her throat.

"M-Megatron," Cyndi politely addressed. She was determined to be as civil and controlled as possible in his presence to ensure the survival of her loved ones. "You have summoned my siblings and I?"

"Yes, I most certainly did," he confirmed. Megatron took a few thunderous steps closer to them. "I have ordered Lockdown to bring you and them to see me. You see, I just had to meet you myself. You can imagine how shocked I was when I found out Blitzwing was devoting his affections to an organic femme. I figured that you must be quite the individual to catch his optics and I decided to have you brought here." The scientific look in his optics had dissipated abruptly. "I am not impressed."

"Shall I leave?" Lockdown asked.

"Yes, leave the room. Thank you for your cooperation, Lockdown. I will give you your proper bounty value shortly."

"Very well, I'll be waiting outside."

Without a moment to lose, Lockdown left the room. He reentered the long, dark, rocky hallway, abandoning the Humans to Megatron's mighty presence. The black and green mech figured he'd let someone fetch him once the head honcho had concluded his conference with the siblings. To a certain extent, he pitied and felt bad for them because he knew they were completely defenseless and most likely marked for death.

"And these are your brother and sister," Megatron noted, shifting his attention to Darien and Amanda. "Speak your names, germs."

"Darien," the youngest sibling choked. "I'm Darien."

"Am-m-m-manda," Mandy stuttered wildly.

"They are the only ones who know of your secret?" the overlord questioned, looking back to Cynthia.

"Yes, that's correct," she nodded her head. "I made them swear to tell no one about it. I trust them to be honest. They've kept their word quite well. If they had loose lips, the news would be all over the city and rumors would even spread back here to this place. It is all still a secret."

"I must say it is a very nicely kept secret. You hid it from me and the rest of this pathetic mud ball for five Earth months. Inevitably, it had been exposed. He told me that it started in January…" He knelt down to intimidate her. "I want you tell me your side of the story."

"I first met him in December. He said he was looking for Allspark fragments…" She paused for a moment, sighing. Honestly, she didn't even know where to begin or what to discuss with him really. "He let me go when I told him I didn't know what they were or where they were. I crossed paths with him again a few days later when he was using a holoform. We met a third time in the city when he, Lugnut and Starscream were attacking it. He actually saved me from a stray tractor trailer but now that I look back on it, I think he was trying to prove a point to me then…"

"How quaint. Now, I assume you've met with him multiple times behind my back?"

"Yes. With each time I met up with him, I found myself liking him more and more. Eventually, it got to a point where I fell in love with him. Believe me, I was more than astonished when I found out he felt the same with me."

"Who kissed first? Tell me the truth."

"Me."

Truly, Megatron wasn't expecting that little tidbit of information. He had assumed Blitzwing was the one who had initiated it considering how outgoing and outrageous he could be at times. With this reveal, the head Decepticon believed he was actually a little bit shy when it came down to coming to grips with confessing certain fluffy feelings.

"And so, you decided to see each other from there?" he asked.

"Yes," Cyndi continued. "I speak the truth, sir."

"'Sir'?" Megatron cocked a brow plate in curiosity. He admired the fact that this organic was respecting him. "This is unusual. Why are you showing me respect? I am an enemy of your race and your protectors, the Autobots."

Cynthia stalled for a moment, her fear combating with the forced valor and courage she was putting out before Megatron. She wiped away a bead of sweat from her forehead.

"I respect you because I fear you," she replied. "I know who I am standing before. I am being civil because I am trying to show you that I am an Earthling who means you no harm. I have not told the Autobots of my relationship with Blitzwing nor do I intend to. I don't have the heart to betray him because I love him."

"If you know who you are standing before, then why have you risked seeing him?" the silver tyrant pressed. "If you didn't associate yourself with the likes of Blitzwing, you wouldn't be in this situation. You have consciously endangered both his life and the lives of your family."

"Blitzwing and I agreed to be together despite the risk of discovery. I didn't force him nor did he force me."

"What of your brother and sister though? Because they know your secret, I have called them in. By what I can see, they are terrified out of their puny minds."

Darien felt completely useless and he felt he wasn't doing his part in this encounter. Summoning up as much spirit and bravery as he could, he spoke.

"Megatron, Amanda and I have learned Cynthia's secret because we felt she was up to something," he said. "We discovered it for ourselves. We asked Cyndi about it and she told the truth when she saw she was caught. When she told us to not tell a soul about it, we promised her we'd uphold it."

Megatron shot an unnerving gaze at the seventeen year old. Visibly, Darien recoiled at the hateful stare. His whole body was ready to take flight but his flustered mind remained in control. He knew that if he did run, he'd be abandoning his sisters to a cruel fate. Not only that, he was sure he'd be killed only seconds after fleeing.

"Regardless, I think your sister is a typical Human," Megatron stated. "She's selfish, stupid and brave at all the wrong times. The only thing she's good for is target practice."

When he indirectly referred that Cynthia was only good enough for dying, Amanda psychologically couldn't take it anymore. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and her whole body went limp. Her vision faded and her strength felt magically sapped. A second later, she fainted, falling onto the floor on her back.

Cyndi spun around when she heard her collapse. She knelt down and slipped one of her hands beneath the back of her skull. When she touched Amanda, she was overheated and her skin was almost drenched with perspiration. Lightly, she tapped her right pointer finger on her cheek to try to wake her back up. Amanda was unresponsive and almost looked like she had died of shock.

"Mandy, get up," Cynthia pleaded. "It'll be alright. Wake up!"

"I must say that your respect for me had caught me off guard," Megatron picked up. "It was a pleasant surprise. I don't think even the resident Human, Professor Sumdac, treats me with such honor anymore."

"'Resident Human'?" Darien repeated. "Wait, you're keeping someone here?"

"Yes, Professor Isaac Sumdac, if you must know. You could say he's been a friend of mine since I crash landed on this planet fifty years ago."

"Blitzwing never told me there was a person being held here," Cynthia remarked, her eyes wide with shock.

"Of course he wouldn't tell you, Cynthia. You have fallen for a Decepticon as you know you are aware of. We aren't all about truth and honesty like those Autobot protectors of yours. We most certainly have dark secrets and things to hide. If you absolutely had to fall so foolishly in love with a Cybertronian, you should've chosen one of the Autobots rather than one of my servants. A Decepticon is no love match for a good, law abiding, little Human such as yourself, Cynthia Preston. I'm wracking my processor over exactly why Blitzwing even fell for you. I won't hide that he kept begging me to spare you… As disturbing and as infuriating as it is, I can clearly see he is partial towards you." He smiled grimly. "Look behind you and off to your right."

Cynthia did as he instructed her to do. When she did this, the woman caught sight of a few pools of pink fluid. She knew what this right away. She remembered Starscream bled this exact same fluid from his wrist when Blitzwing bit it to free her. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. An agonized, sorrowful gasp seeped from her mouth.

"Oh my God," she rasped. "His blood!"

"Blood to you, energon to us," Megatron corrected. "Yes, I had taken my rage out on him and he deserved every single minute of it. Don't worry though… He is alive. He's unconscious right now. When he comes back around and he leaves his quarters, he'll see a huge red stain on the floor. He'll know who it was without much thought at all."

"Please, don't kill us!" Darien fell on his knees and folded his hands together as if he was praying to God. "Let us live! We haven't told anyone anything and we'll keep it that way! We won't even tell anyone where this base is located! We're all awesome at keeping secrets!"

"Although you and Amanda are quite innocent, Darien, you will share the same fate as Cynthia. You simply know too much. Not only that, I still need to get my anger out. I'm sparing Blitzwing because he's still useful to me. With your deaths, he will learn that he should never hide anything from me regardless of its triviality."

"If you absolutely have to kill me, go on," Cynthia said mournfully. She was the one who was crying now. "But I want you to spare my siblings. For God's sake, they're eighteen and seventeen! They're still kids! They're not the ones in love with any Decepticons! I was! Let me at least pay for it if you insist someone must die! All they did was keep a secret!"

"I must decline your final request. I know that if I spare them, how will they report your disappearance to the authorities? At least be content with the knowledge I am sending all three of you off to the other side together."

"I regret none of this!" Tears streamed down her face like moisture on a glass of lemonade on a hot July day. "I love him!"

Megatron could only smile evilly. The Decepticon laughed at her declaration of love for his minion. He reared himself back up to his full, imposing height. His ruby colored optics looked back at them one final time. Then he raised a stabilizing servo, readying himself to crush them with one well-placed stomp.

"No more words?" he asked.

Cynthia shook her head while Amanda still remained unconscious.

"You suck," said Darien. He lifted up his middle finger. "Remember this!"

He only laughed jollily.

"Oh, I love the spirit you organics display," he said with a truly amused grin. "But all good things must come to an end."

"WAIT!"

The loud voice rang out suddenly. Megatron almost lost his balance in his surprise. When he placed his huge, inorganic foot down, he regained his equilibrium. For a moment, he felt sheepish and ashamed.

The three Humans he was ready to obliterate were just as shocked as him. Cynthia almost jumped out of her skin and Darien yelped loudly. They looked around frantically, trying to figure out where this savior's voice rang out from.

Sumdac's figure was pressed up against the glass wall of his odd prison cell. The short, stout, older man had an aghast and disbelieving expression plastered on his face. For a moment, Sumdac couldn't believe he actually rebelled against his captor's actions. However, he knew he couldn't stand around and eavesdrop on the whole ordeal like he had been doing since Blitzwing had been harshly interrogated. Not only that, Isaac felt his conscious would forever torture him if he had allowed these three young people to die without a fighting chance. He just couldn't let them die because one was in love and the other two were sworn to secrecy.

"Do you want to say that again and join these wretches, Professor?" Megatron glared. "I can have that happen in no time."

The siblings caught sight of Sumdac at last, seeing the Human Megatron referred to earlier. A hopeful, tiny smile formed on Cynthia's face. Darien slapped his hands together and looked upwards and silently mouthed 'thank you'.

"Forgive me, Megatron," Sumdac began, overcoming some of his own shock. "But is it really necessary to slay these young people?"

"I must assume it to be necessary because I was about to kill them," he spat back. "Do you have a problem with me killing them? Or are you just feeling sentimental right now because three members of your own species are at last within proximity of you?"

"Well…" He had to admit it was a treat to see fellow organics despite such grave circumstances. But now that he had spoken out, Sumdac had to find a way to convince Megatron to spare them. "I think we don't really need to kill them." The robotics professor regretted what he was about to do but he saw he had no other choice. "Perhaps they can be of use to us."

For some reason, the massive silvery bot found himself intrigued. He looked at the Humans who were focusing on Sumdac, almost forgetting about Megatron at the moment. Then he returned his gaze to Sumdac.

"What makes you say that?" he said, wanting his organic servant to provide more of an explanation.

"Cynthia said she cannot betray Blitzwing because she loves him," the oldest Human reasoned. "Darien and Amanda are good at keeping secrets… Perhaps you can give them a chance and have them employed into their services."

At first, the two conscious Preston siblings wanted to throttle him for suggesting Megatron to enslave him. But since they were Human, they got the vibes he was sticking up for them since they all belonged to the same species. As far as they could tell, he didn't seem look like a bad guy. Besides, he just saved them from being popped open like blueberries.

Placing a servo on his chin, Megatron gave the idea a few moments of serious contemplation. He wanted to fiercely dismiss it but at the same time, it was tempting and interesting. Sumdac had made a good point regarding Cynthia being loyal to Blitzwing: that loyalty she felt towards him could be used to serve him. As far as her siblings were concerned, he thought that a few more free agents couldn't hurt. He'd teach them obedience if their loyalty to their sister wasn't worthy enough. The Autobots would also never suspect that their seeming allies would become the servants of the Decepticons. As long as he mulled over that matter, a million possibilities ran through his dark processor…

"I must confess you most certainly have opened my optics to this," he admitted solemnly. "This idea genuinely has caught my interest. It is promising but I need more opinions from my men. Thank you for bringing for this matter, Professor. I knew there was a reason why I've kept you around as long as I have."

"Wait, we're gonna live?" Darien assumed.

"Boy, how do you feel about being my servant?" He chuckled sinisterly. "Oh, Cynthia." She looked at him when he spoke her name. "I must say that you ought to consider yourself extremely lucky. Your relationship with Blitzwing may be both a blessing and a curse for you. You see, fair Human, when you fall in love with a Decepticon, you become one yourself."

"As long as you spare my siblings, I don't care," she said, wiping away any moisture on her face.

"Spare them from death? Yes. Spare them from service? No. They're guilty by association. Besides, since they're tight lipped, they'll make fine servants."

"Oh, Mandy's not going to like this when she wakes up," Darien grumbled.

"So, it's been decided. I will talk of this matter with Lugnut and Starscream to see what their thoughts are. In the end, I will decide whether I should give you three a chance or to go on with crushing you beneath my stabilizing servo. I will call Lockdown in and he will take you to Blitzwing's quarters until I have made my final decision."


	29. The Jury's Deliberation

**Thanks a ton for the reviews/faves/alerts, everyone! :D Okay, this chapter is quite short in comparison to the other ones I wrote but this one is mostly nothing but talking. Hopefully this won't be short enough where I annoy my readers... It's also a little boring but unfortunately it's necessary for plot build-up and I didn't want to combine two chapters together like I originally planned to make a "super update". Enjoy the newest addition!**

Chapter 29 The Jury's Deliberation

(…)

Once more, Lockdown escorted the two females and the boy through the craggy innards of the lair. He was leading them down the hall where the Decepticons' respective quarters were located. Lockdown somewhat dreaded being the one to show them around everywhere but he didn't mind it so much now that Amanda was still out cold. To see them still alive and in one piece greatly surprised him and it showed when he entered the room after Megatron yelled for him.

'_Take them to Blitzwing's quarters and guard the door so neither he nor the organics will try to escape. I need to have a little conference with Lugnut and Starscream about something. I will send someone to bring all five of you back in after we're done talking._'

Simple enough. It was impossible to screw up. Blitzwing was rendered weak and battered from Megatron and the organics were simply organics. Then again, Lockdown found himself questioning these Humans within the sanctity of his processor. He simply didn't know how they got off the hook with regards to being slain by the bot who was dead set on snuffing out their lives before they even set foot in the lair. Megatron did not tell him Sumdac selflessly stuck his neck out for them.

"You should be extremely grateful," he told the siblings without even maintaining eye contact with them.

"We are," Cynthia said softly. "If it wasn't for that poor man, we'd be red stains on the floor."

"Oh, Sumdac. He stuck up for you?"

"Yes. But it's not over yet. Sumdac convinced him to spare us for the time being. Megatron said he still needed to talk to Starscream and Lugnut over the matter."

The mismatched Cybertronian said nothing more.

"She is so heavy!" Darien complained as he carried a still unconscious Amanda. "She may not look it but she is! I think she needs to cut out the cookies!"

Secretly, Lockdown smirked. Now he had more gasoline to add to the fire whenever she finally did come around.

Literally seconds later, they made it to the door that led into Blitzwing's quarters. Lockdown tapped a few buttons that were on the keypad situated next to the door. A dull click sounded, signaling that the locking mechanism was deactivated.

"Don't be surprised if he looks like he's dead," he told the Humans. "He's not dead. He just had the slag beat out of him."

"Thanks for the heads up," Cyndi replied blandly. "I already was aware of that when I saw pools of energon in that little corner."

The automatic door swept opened when the group took a step closer. They could immediately see Blitzwing who was lying down on his berth, seeing he looked quite unresponsive. His helm was titled to the side, looking away from the group. The triple changer was sprawled out over the metal bed and he really did look like he was deceased. His arm was hanging over the side of the berth, hanging ominously like a noose.

"Go touch him and see if he's alive," said Darien.

"No, he's alive," Lockdown answered. "If he was dead, he would have no color. He would just be an ugly coloration of various grays if he was."

"He's just afraid to come closer," Hothead said suddenly. "He knows zat if he does, my servo's going to punch straight zhrough his spark chamber."

An enormous smile instantly sprang up on Cynthia's face. Even Darien managed to sigh in relief to see that he was at least capable of speech now. Lockdown left the room without saying another word and the door shut behind him.

With an anguished groan and some effort, Blitzwing shifted his helm so that he could get a view of the Humans. When his optics lied upon the three familiar people, he grinned softly. Another pained moan came from his mouth when he attempted to sit up.

"Don't move a finger!" Cyndi instructed, running to his side. "Let me come to you."

In no time at all, she made it to his hanging servo. When she touched it, his digits came around her body. Although every single inch of his chassis hurt, Blitzwing lifted his hand up, bringing Cyndi up towards where he was lying on the berth. He released her, placing her right next to his faceplate.

"Jou're okay," he said with some disbelief in his voice. "Vhat did jou do to make Megatron spare jou?"

"Kiss me first and then I'll explain," said Cyndi. "I've been as sick as a dog, worrying about you."

They smooched. Without warning, Icy and Random took their turns with a kiss as well. It never felt so good to kiss a loved one after one feared that their significant other had been beaten to death so ruthlessly. She was somewhat happy he was a Decepticon since Cynthia believed they could take more blows than a smaller, lighter Autobot. If she had fallen for an Autobot and Megatron had his way with them, she might've been weeping beside a colorless, inanimate, gargantuan chunk of metal.

"Vell," Hothead said, regaining control again, "tell me."

"Sumdac saved our skins," she explained. She poked him with a fingertip. "You never told me you were keeping a Human here."

Blitzwing smiled sheepishly. Cynthia didn't seem so amused on the other hand. She folded her arms across her chest, silently signaling to him she wanted an explanation of some sort.

"Megatron vants him here," he said. "He'd have my helm if I freed Sumdac. Don't start vith me now, Cyndi. I'm just happy jou're alive."

"I'm willing to buy whatever explanation," she said. "I thought I was never going to see you again. We almost did die tonight."

"Hey, don't worry about me!" Darien yelled. "I'm cool!" He fell to his knees, his strength giving out from carrying Amanda. "I'm chilling out on the floor!"

"Vhat happened to her?" Random asked.

"She fainted. I guess being in Megatron's presence freaked her out too much."

"She needs to vake up and join us!" He extended his arm out to Darien. His servo unfolded and he stretched his fingers out. "I vill vake her up in no time at all."

Darien liked where this was going. Grinning like the Cheshire Cat, he forced himself back up to his feet. He shuffled over to Blitzwing's large hand and the mech snatched both him and Mandy up when they got close enough. Blitzwing brought them up to the berth where Cyndi was. Then he set them down next to their sister.

After exerting some effort, Blitzwing managed to lie on his side. He shook off the aches and pains and focused on lessening the ferocious atmosphere with a twist of jest. Random's ever present smile only grew as he looked at Amanda who was still quite oblivious to the world around her.

"Let go of her, Darien," he said.

"Blitzwing, don't freak her out so much that she has a heart attack," Cynthia urged. "She was in tears earlier over seeing Megatron."

"But I'm not Megatron! At least she has a chance of living vith me!"

He brought his face in close to Amanda's limp form. The black and red face hovered only mere feet above her face. Blitzwing chuckled impishly. For a moment, he paused in order to formulate a plan.

"Mandy," he chirped sweetly. His finger tickled her stomach. "Vakey, vakey!" Her eyes stirred beneath her eyelids slightly. Blitzwing had to repress a spray of laughter, thinking about the results. "Amanda, zis is jour Prince Charming! I have come to take jou far avay to my kingdom vhere ve vill be bonded. Do I have to kiss jou to vake jou up?"

"Mmph… Wha?" Amanda grumbled incoherently.

"I'm going to kiss jou now!"

He increased the volume of his voice when he said that statement. That woke her up instantly. When she opened up her eyes, seeing nothing but his face dominating her vision, she screamed as if she was face-to-face with some monster from one's deepest, darkest nightmares.

"BLITZWING!" she screeched. "You creep!"

Blitzwing howled in laughter. She scrambled away from him on her butt, scooting over to Darien's side. Her arms wrapped around his frame as she shook like a leaf. Then she threw a harsh stare at Cynthia.

"Cyndi, learn to control that beast!" she scolded. "My lips were almost tainted by him!"

"Excuse jou," Icy bit back coldly. "I vould never kiss jou eizher vay. It vould take me veeks to get rid of jour horrid taste. I vould razher kiss a squid if I vanted to kiss somezhing less slimy."

"I hate you! I'd rather kiss…" Her mind ran wild to come up with an insult of some sort. "That grade-A bounty hunter loser, Lockdown!"

"Vell, have at it. I vant to see it. So vhen he valks back into zis room, do it."

"Peace, peace, peace!" Cynthia rapidly repeated. "Let's not butt heads now."

Blitzwing nodded his head in approval, deciding that he could continue to bicker with Amanda once the severity of the looming situation diminished. He was happy to see that Cyndi was alive and he didn't want anything else to slash his joy. For the few moments before he lost consciousness, he thought he lost her for good. To see her intact and alive, but obviously stressed, made him feel grateful and hopeful.

"Yes, I need to cool down," the blonde said. "I almost died tonight and I want to be left alone for a few minutes."

"I still vant her to kiss Lockdown at some point," Hothead grinned competitively.

"Sorry, I don't find walking, talking, murderous, intergalactic hunks of metal sexy. I'm the only normal person in this entire cave."

"Hey, I'm normal," Darien said.

"No, you're not. You like Blitzwing so you need help."

"Jou're just jealous," Blitzwing accused.

"Oh, please. What a joke!"

"Alright, everyone shut the Hell up!" Cynthia rose her voice. "I don't want to hear anymore bickering! Blitzwing, if you have nothing nice to say at all, don't say it. Same deal for you, Mandy."

Grinding her teeth in annoyance, Amanda silenced herself. She still refused to let go of her brother. With loathing in her pale green eyes, she continued to look at Blitzwing. However, he judged her to be not worth his energy and he blatantly ignored her.

"Let me ask a question," said Icy. "If Sumdac saved jou zhree, vhy are jou being held in my quarters?"

"Megatron wants to have a meeting with the other Decepticons," Darien told. "I guess he wants their opinion on having us on their team."

"Megatron is considering having jou become Decepticon agents?" Blitzwing would've wrinkled his nose if he had one. "Vas zis Sumdac's idea?"

"Yeah, it was. But I think it was the only idea he could come up with to save us."

"I know vhat Starscream zhinks of jou all." He shook his helm grimly. "Zhey vill not approve of jou at all. Vhat vas Megatron's reaction to ze idea?"

"Amazingly, he seemed to like it."

"Zhen zhere is some hope. He might disregard Lugnut and Starscream's opinions altogether since it really is his own zat runs ze show."

"I didn't sign up to be a slave of Megatron's," Mandy said miserably. "I'm already a cashier at a grocery store and I'm happy with that."

"Vell, vould jou razher be dead?"

"No…"

"I didn't want this for any of us," Cynthia spoke up. "I don't want to become an agent either. But we have to deal with it. Hopefully, it won't be as bad as I've assumed it to be."

Silently, the other three acknowledged her words.

Cynthia moved closer to Blitzwing. As if she was cold, she pulled her legs up to her chest and leaned against his chest. His purple-banded, black servo came across her like a blanket as it always did during the winter to make her feel secure and warm. Her eyes shut and she exhaled slowly through her nostrils. It felt good to hear the pulsation of his spark after all this stress and terror she was exposed to.

"I told him I loved you," she said without moving. "I didn't care and it felt good to say it to him."

"I told him ze same zhing," Random whispered into her ear. "And I'm not afraid anymore. It felt really good alzhough I vas coughing up energon."

Darien looked at Amanda who was laying her head against his left shoulder. Her grip was gentler than what it was earlier. He rested his head against hers.

"Guess I ain't going to school," he chuckled weakly. "I'm going home and sleeping after this mess. It's probably four-something right now. "

"If I could sleep for a million years to bypass it all, I would," was Amanda's sullen response. "I'd love to go some spa in the Mediterranean after all this. I can just imagine what kind of worry wrinkles are on my face now. I probably look as old as Mom now."

Her brother scoffed. His arms came around her in a comforting fashion. Despite the fact she was physically two years older than him, Darien often felt he was older than her mentally. Often, he was the one who had to calm her down or try to comfort her. In reality, he didn't mind.

The four of them sat together in an uneasy calm. Although one of the four wasn't even a native of this planet, the other party members didn't mind having him amongst them. In a way, they were all just relieved they had a loved one with them as they waited for someone to knock on the door to summon them before Megatron himself.

(…)

"WHAT?"

Megatron wasn't too pleased with his second in command's little outburst. His fierce stare bore into Starscream ruthlessly.

"Do not make me repeat myself, you bumbling fool," he warned. "You heard me and you heard me well."

"Master, I do not wish to question you," Lugnut said faithfully, "but are you sure that the Professor is correct? What if he is trying to trick you?"

"I am doing no such thing," Sumdac asserted from behind the glass. The three Decepticons decided to include him in the conference considering he was the one who came up with the idea. They stood mere inches away from the glass but this didn't intimidate him. "The idea that you could use them instead of crushing them dawned on me."

"Professor, you and I both know that you pitied the young ones," Megatron said icily. "The reason why you spoke out was because they are of your species and you didn't want to see them die. However, I admired your quick thinking in that situation. I wondered if you were going to say something sooner or later. You merely watched me demoralize Blitzwing as he screamed and begged. But when you saw me ready myself to slay the three siblings, you came out like a knight in shining armor."

"Humans will stick up for each other in situations like this which actually surprises me," Starscream noted. "They'll do whatever they can to preserve one another when there're different, intelligent 'alien' species in their midst." He huffed. "They're the aliens to me."

"Are Blitzwing's words weighing on your processor, Master?" Lugnut asked. "He did repeatedly beg you to spare his love interest and not hurt her."

"I didn't care even if he was screaming and crying like a sparkling," Megatron replied. "I don't care if he's in love with her or not. His words fell on deaf audio receptors when he pleaded with me to spare her. Perhaps it was because he didn't say she had worth to me like you did, Professor."

"I'm sorry, Megatron, but I object," Starscream placed his servos on his hips. "I think you're wasting time with those Humans. That Cynthia will only get in the way considering she's with Blitzwing. They'll be kissing on the mission rather than actually getting work done!"

"I'm not surprised. However, I can endure the gestures of affection. You see no benefits in this opportunity but I see possibilities, Starscream. We can use her. Her weakness is her loyalty to him. She even told me she couldn't betray him. I can use that and turn that loyalty to Blitzwing into loyalty to me. I know she will serve me well for those reasons. As for the brother and sister, they cling to her like she's their mother. I can use that against them too. According to Blitzwing and Cynthia's testimony, the two haven't told a soul about the relationship."

"Uh, perhaps it is a good idea after all, Master," said Lugnut. "Forgive me for doubting you earlier. It was just such an outlandish but brilliant plan!"

Starscream rolled his optics at Lugnut's sycophancy. Sometimes, he felt hurling out of sheer disgust with the husky disciple's miniature speeches (or more like sermons) of praise and victory. All he knew was that whenever he'd finally become the distinguished, unquestionable leader of all Decepticons, Lugnut would soon join his beloved Megatron in the Pit. The seeker wouldn't be able to stand trying to convince the cyclopean bot Megatron was at long last offline. Without a doubt, he knew Lugnut would spout nonsense that he was still alive and amongst them in some way or another. Frankly, he couldn't take it.

"I must admit that although I do not like the Humans, I will give them a chance if you will do the same for them, Master," Lugnut decided. "Maybe they will prove to be instrumental to us…" He paused for a long moment. "Which will be most unexpected but quite clever!"

"I suppose you need more convincing," Megatron spoke to Starscream. "We can use them against the Autobots. Optimus Prime and his underlings will never suspect it. They will be completely blind to it."

"I hate Humans," Starscream remained bitterly defiant. "I am still infuriated that one of those filthy creatures had ensnared Blitzwing with her devilish, feminine wiles! I don't understand it!"

"I hate them too but I'm not afraid to use them to my advantage and agenda if the opportunity presents itself."

"I do not trust them."

"The sad thing is, I think they will make more loyal allies than you, Starscream. True, you are the one who brought my attention to Blitzwing's affair and I am pleased with that, but you still haven't earned my trust. To me, you're still a vulture who's always looking for scraps."

"I'm not a vulture," he thought to himself. "I'm a snake." Then he opened up his mouth and spoke. "But the organics lack brains and brawn."

"Oh please, I'm sure an organic can match your processor power or even exceed it considering your wits."

Lugnut couldn't restrain a deep, throaty chuckle. Even Sumdac smirked softly. Starscream folded his arms across his chest, looking thoroughly displeased.

"I think I have made my final decision," Megatron announced a few seconds later. "I believe I will give the organics a chance. However, if they prove to be disappointing or shortcoming, I will personally take the liberty to relieve them from their duties." He looked at Professor Sumdac. "Do you understand me? And do not ever try to tempt me to acquire Human agents again or you will join them."

"I understand," the man lowered his weary head. He just really hoped they would prove to be worthy enough for Megatron to allow them to live. He'd feel awful about it if they displeased him. "I'm confident they will do what they can to show they are worthy enough to live."

"I alone will be the judge of that."

"What about Blitzwing?" Starscream demanded. "He can't just walk away unpunished for his deceit!"

"I have humiliated him with a thorough beating. I think that I put a decent amount of fear into his spark but I agree with you on that, Starscream. But he's also sturdy and he can take a fair amount of abuse." Once more, he faced the organic present. "I will need your assistance in the final act of his penance. You did say that little gadget of yours was finished, correct?"

"Uh, yes," Sumdac replied uneasily. "It is complete but…" He didn't know how to word it Megatron exactly. "I'm a bit wary about it being tested or even used right now."

"What's that supposed to mean?" The Decepticon leader didn't sound too content with this news.

"It is done but I think it's a little unstable. I believe it needs a little more tweaking before it is test safe."

"Then why did you tell me yesterday that it was done?" He shook his helm. "Never mind. We are going to use it tonight. I've already selected the test subject. He wouldn't mind being the subject considering he's quite the oddball either way."

"Megatron, it could have irreversible effects on Blitzwing. Do you think it really is necessary to jeopardize the livelihood of one of your loyal lieutenants?"

"Do not try to convince me otherwise, Professor. I hold the life of every single thing in here in the palm of my servo. I will do what I see fit with Blitzwing. Besides, he himself is an irreversible effect. I thought there weren't going to be any significant side effects when he was reconstructed as a triple changer. You could only imagine the look on my faceplate when I saw two new faces greet me. I took such pity on him due to his condition that I almost euthanized him. However, he had learned to deal with the side effect as did everyone else for that matter. I'm sure any effects you're thinking of are many times inferior."

Although Sumdac was no friend of Blitzwing's, he pitied him and he saw the triple changer was the lesser of the evil. The device he had been working on for the past few months had been an odd one to construct, one that he didn't expect Megatron to commission. However, the organic did see the cleverness in it.

"Very well," the short man said. "We'll use it."

"Besides," said Megatron, "I need Blitzwing to keep an eye on those organics so they don't leak any information to anyone be it intentional or not." He faced Lugnut. "Go to Blitzwing's quarters. Assist Lockdown in bringing Blitzwing in. I don't think he will fight but anymore, I find myself questioning him."


	30. Guardians

**Thanks for the reviews/alerts/faves, all! I'm just relieved to see some people like and read my story. I was getting paranoid that no one liked it anymore for some reason... Alright, I decided to try something drastically different as opposed to what happened to Blitzwing in the old story... This is a rewrite and I didn't want there to be a predictable storyline that repeated LIAL too much. It was **Fruity Sangheili**'s idea so I thank and give her credit for suggesting the scenario to me! I'm not saying anything until you read more and find out for yourself! This chapter may be a drag to read (I know it was a pain to edit) but I promise it's not without a good reason. Please enjoy the chapter! :)**

Chapter 30 Guardians

(4:20am)

Darien was silently listening to the sound of Mandy snoring. She was still using him as a support, looking a lot like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Truthfully, he wasn't annoyed or irked by this. He didn't mind being a source of emotional comfort for her. As long as she was calm, wasn't raving and making a huge deal out of things, he didn't care. In order to achieve that soothing quiet, he was willing to let her take a snooze on his shoulder.

The youngest Preston's pale green eyes turned away from Amanda's blonde crown. He spied upon his eldest sister and her odd lover. Cyndi appeared to be asleep but when he looked closely at her, she blinked. Her eyes then shut as she tried to relax. Blitzwing's optics appeared heavy and he looked like he was ready to go into recharge at any moment. The boy stared at the triple changer blankly with nothing really running through his mind at all.

To him, looking at Blitzwing was like observing a newly discovered, deadly species of predator. It was fascinating but markedly terrifying at the same time. What made things all the more unnerving was that this predator had a conscious and could kill or decide to spare on will. He wasn't as readable as a famished tiger which one could predict would be poised to devour whatever poor, breathing soul that crossed its path. Darien himself quite couldn't describe what it was like to be in his midst or in the presence of any Cybertronian for that matter. Both Autobots and Decepticons fascinated him. In a way, he could understand why his friend, Benji, liked throwing caution to the wind by observing and running away from the warring factions when they feuded in the city.

Then he faced Cynthia. She was still sitting contently with Blitzwing almost as if she was completely blind to what he saw with his own eyes. He thought he'd never see a sacrificial village maiden resting alongside a terrible fire-breathing dragon (or in Blitzwing's case, a hydra) which was supposed to partake in shearing and consuming her soft, succulent flesh. Plenty of time had gone by for Darien to try to comprehend this situation but he still found himself befuddled. He tolerated it and to a certain degree, he approved it. Ultimately though, he was still confused by this mystery.

As he absentmindedly stared, the teenager suddenly felt jealousy to his greatest surprise. How could an organic and a Decepticon get along? How? He couldn't even get a fellow Human to even respect the feelings he bore for her. It made him physically ill.

'_I don't feel the same way about you. I never will. I'm sorry but I'm just not interested. You're wasting your time, Darien. To be honest, I still don't see you as a friend even though we had chatted much since January_.'

When he started to think about Tristan, his anger began to usurp his nervousness. He had almost completely forgotten about the event since Lockdown had brought them to the lair on Megatron's orders. Still, he coveted Tristan but he was repulsed by her callousness at the same time. Was this forbidden fruit really worth it? If he ever did manage to ensnare her, would she turn out to be an unbearable hag?

At this point, he decided she just wasn't worth it. Thinking about her wasn't worth the heartache.

For the umpteenth time, Darien turned his stare back to Blitzwing. He sighed, wanting the wait to end. Anxiety and apprehension had been ruling him for awhile and he wanted these heavy emotions to leave him. Unfortunately, that would be cured when he and his sisters would be freed.

Blitzwing felt a pair of eyes on him and he gazed right back at Darien. Darien quickly looked away to avoid an awkward moment. The mech chuckled softly upon seeing this.

"Jou know I von't kill jou," the blue face said sleepily. "Vhat's on jour mind, youngling?"

"Nothing," he replied shortly. "The past twenty four hours sucked. I got my heart broken by a classmate and then I almost got killed by Megatron."

"How'd zat happen?"

"She's heartless, cruel and solitary. I told her my feelings and she stepped all over them like dog crap."

"Zat's a pity. I vasn't too lucky in love eizher vhen I vas younger. Just move along. Jou'll see zat she's not vorth it. Vat vas her name?"

"Tristan."

"Spit on her ze next time jou see her," said Hothead. "Jou'll feel better."

"Yeah, she'll break my wrist. She's a tough chick." He shook his head. "She acts like she's such a martyr but she comes off as a big old baby."

"If she does not respect jou and she steps all over jou like so much slag, forget her. Remember zat if she continues to rub jou ze vrong vay, I can help jou vith zat problem."

"Don't!" Cyndi scolded Blitzwing. "Darien's seventeen. He doesn't need to be worried about getting you to kill anyone."

"Oh, come on, Cyndi!" Random pouted. "Sometimes jou're no fun at all!"

"Your idea of fun includes victimizing people. I forbid it, Blitzwing."

"No, don't kill her," said Darien. "Let her continue being miserable for all I care. Hopefully, she'll learn her lesson."

"Be a rebel, Darien," Blitzwing tempted him.

"I can't believe you're trying to convince my brother in letting someone get murdered!" Cynthia exclaimed. "Shut up, Blitzwing!"

He snickered devilishly. A fingertip massaged the back of her skull. While he regarded her affectionately, Cynthia rolled her eyes and exhaled heavily.

"I never get sick of teasing jou," the black and red face cooed.

"Creep," she muttered. "If my precious, sweet, little brother magically turns into a serial killer, I'll know who molded him into such a monster."

There was a brisk yet loud rapping against the door to the bedroom. Amanda was awakened by this tapping. The other three souls who were more aware of the world around them snapped their heads to the door.

"The decision has been made!" Lugnut's booming voice sounded from other side of the door. "Megatron wants to see all four of you about the matter!"

"Oh, lovely," Mandy yawned. "We all get to die."

"Can you move or do we have to come in and carry you out, Blitzwing?" Lockdown taunted.

"I have two legs, right?" Hothead hissed. "Zhey are functional… I vould start running if I vas jou, Lockdown!"

"Megatron will not smile upon any resistance you attempt, Blitzwing," Lugnut reminded. "Now, come. Megatron awaits!"

Blitzwing was going to try to sit up instead of lying down on his side as he had been doing for some time. His body creaked painfully and he winced in agony, choking back a few groans. Every single inch of his chassis ached and he knew it would be probably a few days if not a week to shake off his pain. As he sat up, his helm rang and he thought he was about to go into stasis lock.

It took him about ten seconds to sit up onto his rump but he did it nonetheless. He swung his legs over the side of the berth and moved them back and forth, testing their mobility. Blitzwing extended his arms and moved them about as well to see if they were functioning properly. Then he twisted his helm from side to side, checking to see if there was anything loose or rattling around inside his metal cranium.

"Blitzwing!" Lugnut thundered.

"Vait a minute, jou overgrown slag heap!" the triple changer responded with equal intensity. "I'm trying to see if I'm alright enough to valk!"

Now all he had to do was placed his weight on his stabilizing servos. He did just that which resulted in him standing upright. For a moment, he felt weak on his boot-like feet but he decided to soldier through the vulnerability.

"Are you alright or are you going to collapse on us?" Amanda asked snottily.

"I don't know," Random turned back to her. "Let's play zat Human trust game. Hold jour arms out and I vill fall back into zem."

"Not in your wildest dreams. You can do that with your boyfriend, Lockdown."

"Mandy, shut up or I will stitch your mouth together!" Cynthia threatened. "Just shut up! You are so obnoxious! Leave him alone, alright?"

Amanda was actually taken aback by what her sister said so much so that she didn't reply to Cynthia's remark. The youngest female grumbled incoherently and broke away from Darien who was still holding her.

"Are you crippled?" Lockdown asked.

"Vhy don't jou come in and see for jourself?" Random answered. "It'll be ze last zhing jou ever see!" Then he turned to the three organics who were still sitting on his berth. "Alright, who vants to go see Megatron?"

"Let's get this done and over with," Cynthia said, breaking into a sweat. "I'm scared out of my wits."

"Don't vorry." He gently plucked her up from the berth. Blitzwing placed her on his right shoulder. "If ve're going to die, ve'll die togezher!" Then he looked at Amanda and Darien. "Come, squishies!"

Darien was a little wary of being lifted up by Blitzwing despite the fact he rode in his jet mode on his birthday. His discomfort was removed when the fingers encircled around him and lifted him up. Blitzwing set him on his left shoulder. Then his servo reached out to Amanda.

"Don't you dare touch me," she barked.

"Shut up and get in his hand," Darien commanded. "Lockdown and the other robot are going to bust the door down if we don't move now."

"I don't want to be touched! Something about being handled by a three-faced titan freaks me out!"

"Ugh, again vith zis nonsense?" Icy bemoaned. "Fine, don't follow us out. Jou can stay in here all by jour lonesome." He smiled confidently. "Jou vill just have to stay in here even after Cynzhia and Darien leave. Jou can be my roommate if jou really vant to."

"Oh my God, NO!" She leapt up to her feet and jumped up and down. "Pick me up! I refuse to be left behind with you and the other crazy people here!"

"Ask and jou shall receive."

As if she was dared to hug a cactus, Mandy grudgingly latched onto one of his fingers. Internally, she was screaming in terror, disgust and disbelief. She couldn't stand even listening to his voices on the phone but actually touching him was almost obscenely unholy to her. It made her skin crawl and the way her bare arms wrapped around his cold, metal digit made her want to back off wildly.

"Geez, how you can you deal with this, Cynthia?" she wheezed, the chill of his inorganic body knocking the wind out of her.

Annoyed, Blitzwing placed her on his right shoulder where Cynthia was. All Cyndi needed to do was shoot a dire looking glare at her sibling to silence her. Quickly, Amanda fell quiet and turned her head downwards, focusing on her feet.

"I'm not entirely sure vhat Megatron vill say," Blitzwing said, talking to all three of the Humans. He began to walk over to the door. "I suggest zat none of jou speak to Megatron unless jou are spoken too. Let me take care of zis… I know him much better zhan eizher of jou zhree do."

"No offense but I'd have to say we confronted the man himself pretty well considering it was our first time," Darien objected. "We were cautious and we made sure we were polite but he was still going to kill us."

"Zat's my point. If jou ever vant to leave zis place, trust me."

Mandy was extremely tempted to make a snide or smarmy comment of some sort but she wasn't too keen on being yelled at or have daggers being glared at her. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she did see that Blitzwing just very well may have been their ticket to get out. As far as she knew, she had absolutely no intentions to stick around for much longer. She never longed for her bed so much before.

The door opened up when Blitzwing got close enough to it. His optics were greeted by the sight of Lockdown and Lugnut who were sour expressions on their faceplates. He scowled right back at them, displaying to them he wasn't the happiest camper either.

"Cute pets, Blitzwing," Lockdown snorted. "You have three of them now for all your personas."

"Jou are just jealous zat ze natives don't like jou," Blitzwing said matter-of-factly. "Humans don't like jou and neizher do any members of our own race. Pitiful and sorrowful, isn't it?"

"Why would I want a Human to like me? That's preposterous. No, the sad thing is that a Human femme loves you more than any Cybertronian femme would. The only Cybertronian femme that would ever love you is your own mother."

"Don't bring my mozher into zis!" Hothead shook a fist at the bounty hunter.

"The Master cannot be kept waiting any longer!" Lugnut said impatiently. He grabbed Blitzwing's fist and pulled him along. "Enough, Blitzwing. We must have audience with our leader. The fate of the organics will be dictated!"

As Lugnut toted Blitzwing around like a child's toy, Lockdown followed close behind. Amanda's head turned to the side, catching sight of the bounty hunter looking back at her. She shuddered visibly and shook her head. Deciding enough was enough, she looked away from him, feeling scared and disgusted.

(…)

Megatron lifted his helm up when he heard the sound of the footfalls echoing through the mine. Instantly, he spotted Lugnut who was still holding Blitzwing's servo. Not too far behind the triple changer and the cyclops was Lockdown. The head 'Con had to double take when he saw the Humans sitting on Blitzwing's shoulders like tame (yet frightened) lovebirds. Cynthia locked gazes with him while her brother and sister preferred to not look him in the optic out of fear for being smitten.

Starscream's bland expression was no more. Now that he saw the organics with his own optics, he was being internally sliced up by fierce ire. His inorganic eyes focused on Cynthia with the stare of a devilish hawk. More than anything else, he wanted to snatch her off from the safety of Blitzwing's shoulder and shred her flesh away with his claws like an apple peeler.

"Ah, wonderful!" Megatron said almost happily. "Here we all are! Did the four of you have enough time to calm down?"

Lugnut led Blitzwing closer to Megatron. Then he released Blitzwing when he guided him a mere fifteen feet away from the imposing bot. The bulky giant rejoined his master faithfully by his left side. Starscream stood on Megatron's right, staring the organics and Blitzwing down.

"She's so ugly she makes Blackarachnia look like a goddess," Starscream snapped, speaking of Cynthia.

"Says ze bot who failed miserably on trying to seduce her," Hothead replied with equal hostility.

"Both of you shut up," Megatron ordered. "I will kill you both if you continue this."

Abruptly, they silenced themselves. Quiet had currently held dominion over the room. However, all Megatron had to do was merely speak and the strained, awkward calm would cease to be. No one else, organic or Cybertronian, was certainly going to rob him of his right.

"Much better," he duly noted. "I'm sure the four of you can deduce why I've ordered you to be brought in."

"Very much so, my lord," Icy replied. "Jou have summoned us so zat jou may tell us our fates."

"Correct. Did any of your little friends inform you of why they were placed in your quarters alive and well?"

"Yes, I am avare of how it came to be. Vithout Professor's Sumdac intervention, zhey vould be dead."

Blitzwing turned his helm to the side, catching sight of the robotics genius who was still confined to his cell. The Human man was standing close to the glass, passively participating in the briefing. Almost stealthily, he shot the organic a tiny smile, thanking him for his gratitude and selflessness. Sumdac seemed to catch the minute grin and nodded his head just once. Then he faced Megatron once more to avoid having his helm ripped off.

"I have to admit that the Professor is a clever individual," Megatron picked up. "But in the end, I have decided upon something…" He paused for a moment. "Humans, do you want to live?"

"Yes!" Darien and Amanda shouted in unison.

Cynthia nodded her head a few times, indicating that she indeed did want to live.

"I can say no more," the lead 'Con continued. "It is simply up to your own choice as to how you wish to live. What I mean by that is how you wish to serve me. I cannot simply let you three organics walk off without any sort of consequence. I do not like that notion at all considering Cynthia infiltrated the spark of one of my closest underlings. I can never put you off so carelessly… I must keep my optics on you three so that I make sure you don't try to betray me in some way and report all that has transpired to the Autobots. I only have one simple requirement from you."

"One thing?" Amanda sputtered. "One thing? We'll do it! I wanna live!"

"I will let you three choose what you want to do for me. I want to make sure that what you choose will prove proficient for your talents anyway. I want you to think deeply and thoroughly about it because it depends on your lives …"

"Wait," Cynthia dared to speak out, "what do you mean by that exactly? What do you mean by our lives depend on it?"

"I'm glad you stopped me there Cynthia so I can explain it to you. If you and your siblings don't come up with an idea to serve me and serve me well, I will kill you. As I've said earlier, there will be consequences."

"Megatron," Blitzwing began, "please, don't do zis to zem…"

"Did I tell you to speak, Blitzwing? I'm talking to the Humans now!"

The three faced robot shut his mouth before he could incite another painful beat down. More than anything else, he wanted Cynthia, Amanda and Darien spared from being forced to serve Megatron. He was more than aware they weren't too keen on betraying their species and he much preferred them as regular civilians rather than Decepticon agents. By becoming Megatron's servant, one ended up playing a tricky game of dice with the Grim Reaper. Their lives would constantly be at risk for destruction and detection. But he was powerless to help them. His lord was more powerful than he was.

"Oh, this ought to be fun," Starscream sneered. "What can they do? Nothing!"

Hothead overpowered Icy. He growled deeply but didn't say anything in return for fear Megatron would lash out at him. Starscream wallowed in Blitzwing's dammed up fury, gloating over the whole issue.

"Way to go Romeo and Juliet," Amanda idly clapped her hands together. "Now we're going to die if we don't come up with something. Unbelievable!"

"Oh, don't be so pessimistic," Megatron said almost mockingly. "I will allow you organics some time to come up with an answer to my requirement. I will give you approximately one month to mull over this. When the month is up, I will be expecting what you've come up with. If you have nothing, you obviously die. If you come up with something, welcome aboard."

"Ooh, I have a question!" Random raised a servo.

"Speak, Blitzwing."

"Can I still stay vith Cynzhia?"

"I see no harm in it now considering you've been seen each other behind my back for some time. The damage has been done. If she can make herself useful for me, the two of you can remain together."

Random squealed in glee. He folded his servos together and jumped up and down. For a moment, Blitzwing forgot about the three organics were sitting on his shoulders. He was reminded of them when Darien slipped off his perch and began to plummet to the ground below. Luckily, his quick reflexes had sprung into action and he grabbed the boy before he could end up seriously injuring himself from the fall.

"Sorry about zat," he apologized, placing Darien back on his shoulder. "I am just so happy zat jour sister can still be vith me!"

"Blitzwing, please don't do that again…" He was as pale as freshly fallen snow. "I can't take much more stress…"

"Oh, Cyndi, zis is so vonderful!" He channeled his attention to his alien lover. Blitzwing nuzzled her with his cheek. "Ve get to be togezher!"

"That is great," she said. She wasn't nearly as cheery due to the raw emotions she felt but she was equally relieved Megatron was going to let them remain a couple. Her hand ran across his face. "We got really lucky…"

Of course, Starscream wasn't pleased in the least bit. He narrowed his optics and glowered at Blitzwing while the triple changer remained oblivious to his malicious stare.

"But there's more," Megatron interrupted. "Someone must keep a watchful optics on the organics for the month." He extended a servo out to someone who stood a ways away from the main crowd. "Lockdown."

Lockdown took a few steps closer to where everyone else, excluding Sumdac, was. His facial expression conveyed subtle disinterest and it seemed as if he didn't even want to be in the base to begin with. His arms were folded across his chest. The green and black mech's whole posture was causal and lax as if nothing special was even going on.

"Yeah, Megatron?" he said.

"I have a new job for you," the other bot revealed. "I want you to safeguard and monitor Cynthia and her siblings. I would like you to do that duty for the month that I had spoken of."

"What's in it for me? I still didn't get paid for spying on Blitzwing."

Amanda was aghast with what she was hearing. Her eyes widened dramatically. Her breathing started to become erratic as the reality sunk in. For a moment, she wondered if she was just hearing this and was becoming disillusioned with what Megatron just said. Lockdown was to babysit her and her siblings? Unthinkable! Inconceivable! Unacceptable! There was no way she could allow that to happen.

"WHAT?" she blurted. "That monster has to watch over us? I can't live with him breathing on my neck! That's my worst nightmare embodied!"

"You have no say in who gets to watch after you, Amanda," the most worthy bot in the room stated. "Lockdown is the ablest candidate here to carry out the task."

"I HATE HIM! I think I hate him more than Blitzwing!"

"That really hurts my feelings, Blondie," Lockdown said weakly, wiping a fake tear away.

"Shut up, no one is talking to you!"

"Silence, Human!" Megatron thundered. "I was talking to him before you had that little outburst of rebellious idiocy!"

Mandy's lower lip quivered and she was ready to weep in despair. This reality really wasn't sitting well with her at all. She was well aware of his holoform and how it could walk through solid objects upon will. Trembles ran down her spine when she pictured him coming into her room when she least expected it. Vomit was ready to snake up her esophagus when she envisioned him sitting outside her work in his vehicle mode, watching her every move.

"No, I don't vant him even near Cyndi!" Hothead debated. "I don't trust zat bounty hunting veasel, Megatron!"

Megatron didn't seem taken aback by Blitzwing's protest. Instead, he grinned.

"I had a feeling it would come down to that, Blitzwing," he said. "In fact, I knew it was inevitable."

"I vant to monitor zem as vell," the triple changer requested.

"That's fine. Actually, I can arrange that easily. As a matter of fact, if you manage to remain careful enough, you can avoid detection from the Humans that live within close proximity to our charges."

"How?" Icy inquired. Then his normal optic widened. "Oh… I know of vhat jou speak, my lord. Did Professor Sumdac say it vas ready?"

"It's passable. You're the test subject I've chosen and you want to accompany the young ones and Lockdown… You're perfect for it."

This wasn't sitting well for Cynthia. She didn't know whether to address Megatron or Blitzwing about her concern and announce her desire for an answer to what they were relating to.

"Wait, hold on a minute," she wasn't talking to anyone in particular. "Can I know what's going on?" Cyndi shook her head. She eyed Blitzwing expectantly. "'Test subject'? Blitzwing, what does that mean? What are you a test subject for?"

"Alright, you might as well be let in on a little development of mine," Megatron answered for her. "Some months ago, I commissioned Professor Sumdac to make a device to test and possibly use for our efforts against the Autobots. From the beginning, I've had the intentions to use Blitzwing as the test subject when the device had reached its completion."

The woman was becoming angry now. Blitzwing was no guinea pig to test on so carelessly in her eyes. In fact, she felt like asking Megatron to have Starscream become the subject instead of her love.

"Besides, he must be punished further for his insolence," he went on. He did notice the rising fury on her face but he brushed it off. "Not only that, Random has insisted on being the first to try it out."

"Tell me what exactly this thing does," she said.

"Don't you want to be surprised?"

"Not really. I'm a worried about him to be honest."

"Cynzhia, I'll be alright," Icy said gently. "Don't be so concerned."

"Are you just saying this so I won't get even more concerned? Don't lie to me, Blitzwing."

He didn't want to lie to cause anymore strife for her. But he didn't want her to be worried sick about him for the exact same reason.

"Jou can't vork jourself up more," he said. "More zhan anyzhing else, jou and jour siblings need to calm down. Vhy don't jou leave vith Lockdown and I vill meet up vith jou very shortly at jour home?"

"It's bad, isn't it?" Cynthia concluded.

"Not necessarily. Please, don't act overtly dramatic. I vill be alright and I vill see jou again." He smiled confidently to assure her. "I promise. It von't take any time at all."

Blitzwing bent down to the ground below. He removed Darien from his seat and placed him on the cold, rocky floor. Amanda was the next to join him. The triple changer was actually surprised with how easily she hopped into his servo. Cynthia still remained with him because he wasn't finished with her yet.

"Look, ve're both alright," Blitzwing reasoned. "Ve're all in one piece. I promise I vill be alright vhen I meet up vith jou. As soon as I'm done here, I'll meet jou. Megatron said it vas alright for me to accompany jou so jou can bet I vill be zhere."

Cynthia didn't know exactly how he was necessarily going to safeguard her and her brother and sister alongside Lockdown for the month. Not only that, she was steadfast on remaining by his side. For all she knew, he'd end up being tortured again and she wasn't going to let him suffer through that.

"No," she said boldly. "I'm leaving with you right beside us."

"I agree!" Amanda yelled. "I'm not going off with Lockdown unless if Blitzwing comes with us!

"I just want to leave in one piece and go to bed," Darien pouted. "Can we hurry up, please?"

"Yes, this is becoming tiresome," Megatron agreed. "Lugnut, fetch the Professor and bring him over to us. Since he made that contraption, he knows how to use it best."

"Yes, Master," Lugnut replied.

He left Megatron's side and walked over to the area where Sumdac was perpetually contained.

"If you insist upon leaving with Blitzwing, so be it," said the Decepticon leader. "It can easily be arranged. I just hope you can spare a few minutes of grateful patience."

"Megatron, I want a good fee paid for this," Lockdown remarked. "But then again, I might heartily enjoy this. Besides, how hard can it be for me to look after a bunch of little organics?"

"You will be repaid fairly and appropriately for your services, bounty hunter. I must thank you for your generosity. I understand this is not your area of expertise. As for your question, I just hope you don't end up eating those words. When they have to be, Humans can be crafty and innovative with solving problems."

"Can I put jou down or vill jou refuse?" Hothead turned to Cynthia.

"I'd say no but you might as well," she replied, still concerned and irked. "I want to leave as badly as my brother and sister. As soon as you're done with this ridiculous experiment, test or whatever the Hell it is, we're getting out of this place."

"Cynthia, our house is your house," Starscream said snidely. "Now that you're a slave to the Decepticon cause, you might as well settle in comfortably."

Preferably, she ignored the seeker who was obviously trying to pry into her head. Cyndi was certainly no fan of his. Blitzwing's stories about him forewarned her of Starscream but now that she actually met this creature and stood in his presence, she saw Blitzwing wasn't necessarily exaggerating. She merely turned a deaf ear to him, pretending she didn't hear him.

The triple changer raised his servo up to her so that she could step into it. Cynthia hopped into it and he bent down to reunite her with her family. Amanda and Darien cloistered around her instinctively like a patch of tubeworms around an undersea vent, seeking protection and warmth from her. She didn't mind this at all and let them invade her personal space.

"I have retrieved the Human," Lugnut announced. He was dangling Sumdac from his lab coat with his pincher-like servos. "Now he will begin the procedure."

Blitzwing walked away from the group that consisted of the Humans, Megatron, Starscream and Lockdown. He stopped when he was about seventy feet away as if he was placing a safe between him and them. To display that he felt no fear, he held his helm up high. In truth, he was somewhat concerned about the whole ordeal considering what the device was constructed for. If it backfired horribly, he was going to be quite angry with being forced to remain that certain way forever.

Lugnut lowered Sumdac to the ground, dropping the poor man three feet above the ground. Sumdac landed on his feet but his knees buckled from the brief plummet. He shuddered slightly but stood up straight. The organic took a few steps away from the group just as Blitzwing did earlier. Calmly, he approached the waiting jet-tank.

In his right hand, he held a device that was shaped and looked a lot like a nine millimeter pistol. Strangely enough, there appeared to be a silencer of some sort that was part of the elongated barrel. It was a dull silver-gray color and looked rather uninteresting. Between the top of the grip and the bottom of the slide, there were tiny buttons. Right behind the hammer, there was a switch that had two readings on it that said 'normalize' and 'minimize'. The toggle on the switch was set to 'minimize'. The sight on the end of the barrel had segmented crosshairs.

Everyone in the group seemed to hold their breath whether they actually did breathe or not. They were all focused on the form of Sumdac who approached Blitzwing but then stopped when he was about fifteen feet away from him. Cyndi bit her nails, silently dreading the suspense of it all.

"Shoot me, Professor!" Random whooped. "I get to be ze first one to try it out! I'm so special!"

"Are you ready, Blitzwing?" Sumdac said cautiously as if a doctor was speaking to his patient before administering anesthesia.

"Yes, I am! Vill it tickle?"

"I… I'm not sure. See for yourself."

Sumdac closed one of his eyes to take aim. He gazed through the crosshair, aiming for his spark chamber. Then, his left pointer finger applied pressure to the trigger. As soon as he did that, a golden, spiraling beam of energy shot out of the barrel. To a certain level, he enjoyed shooting Blitzwing with something to take out some of his pent up frustration.

Random's optics widened hugely when the beam hit him in his chest. He could feel a tingly feeling that ran throughout his chassis that was the equivalent to someone getting a chill running down their spine. Contrary to what he believed, it didn't tickle. As a second or two went by since he was struck by the ray, he could feel everything inside his body somehow shift and alter. Somehow, it appeared that Megatron, Starscream and Lugnut were growing taller. Another few seconds went by and it looked like even Lockdown, who was the shortest bot present, got taller as well!

"Vait!" he yelped. "Vhy is everybody growing?"

Then he slapped his mouth against his servo in pure shock. His voice didn't sound normal. It sounded squeaky and too cute! This was no way for a feared Decepticon warrior to sound like.

"Stop it!" Hothead raged. His voice sounded like a child's as well. "Zis is humiliating! Change me back!"

He looked downwards to where Sumdac was. It appeared he was lowering himself down to the Professor's height even though he wasn't physically moving. Then the truth hit him like a lightning bolt striking a tree. He was shrinking!

Before he could lunge at Sumdac and halt the process, he stopped downgrading in height. The golden beam dissipated and the tingly sensation in him ceased altogether. He looked at his servos and the rest of his body. Blitzwing was properly proportioned as he was at his original height but he had been shortened dramatically, approximately to seven feet tall.

"I'm…" His voice no longer sounded squeaky and had returned to its normal tone. "I'm a bug!"

Blitzwing felt utterly humiliated and he felt as if his self confidence spontaneously combust and collapse into ashes. He had prided himself on his imposing stature that had intimidated smaller Decepticons and the naturally tinier Autobots. He could no longer rip apart his enemies to with his bare servos. Now he thought he looked like a wimp. To a Human though, he was still frightening.

"I'm pazhetic!" Hothead whined. "Look at vhat has become of me!"

Starscream threw his helm back in laughter upon seeing Blitzwing's predicament. He extended a finger at him mockingly.

"Look at the little sparkling!" he jeered. "He's so adorable!"

"STARSCREAM!" He roared. His whole body was shaking in anger. "I'll bite jour legs off!"

"Oh, I'm fun sized!" Random gushed. "I have to admit, zis is cool!"

Cynthia's jaw was dropped so steeply that it looked like a sinkhole in the earth. Darien didn't know what to think at all and stared at Blitzwing with furrowed brows and a scowl on his face. Amanda's eyes were huge and her hands were folded over her chest as if she was clutching her heart.

"Well, it seems as if all went according to plan," Megatron said with curiosity in his optics. "How do you feel, Blitzwing?"

"Alright," Icy answered. "I don't feel odd really. I feel normal. But I can't believe vhat my optics are seeing. Jou are so tall, my lord. I've shrunk…"

He walked past Sumdac, deciding to restrain Hothead and not let him pummel the man for doing this to him. After all, he was ordered to do it on Megatron's command. Blitzwing approached the group, feeling a little uneasy rejoining them. Now he felt like he could relate to how Humans felt in the presence of Cybertronians. And he didn't like that one bit. The purple and beige mech felt vulnerable and powerless.

When he made it to Cynthia's side, he stopped. The woman couldn't tear her eyes away from him since she was still in awe and disbelief over what had just happened. He was still bigger than her obviously but she had difficulty getting over this height adjustment.

"So, everything's alright," Megatron sounded as if his patience had all but evaporated. "Blitzwing, Lockdown, Earthlings, leave. After all this mess, I now plan on recharging deeply."

"Wait, hold on one second," Amanda said rapidly. "Lockdown's going to watch over us and Blitzwing is too apparently. Is that a reason why he turned into a midget?" Blitzwing growled in an annoyed tone at the term 'midget' but she ignored this. "Does that mean…"

"Yes, he'll be sheltered alongside you. I'm sure your sister has no qualms about welcoming him into your home."

"W-w-wait! He's… he's living with me?"

"But of course. If one saw a jet or tank parked outside of your home, wouldn't they be suspicious? Now, leave. Your voice is highly abrasive and annoying." He looked at his fanatical follower. "Lugnut, place the Professor back into his cell before he gets any ideas of escaping. He can't leave yet."

Megatron turned his back on them all and began to walk out of the room. All he cared about was getting a little recharge. Starscream had disturbed his rest with the news of Blitzwing's lover a few hours earlier and the exhaustion was getting to him. His helm was aching from all the screaming and drama anyway.

"Well, have fun," said Starscream. "I will pray for you all because I know you will need as much strength as you need to deal with him. Now you will know what we have to deal with."

"Yup, I am so padlocking my door," Mandy finalized.

"Oh, come on, Amanda!" Random cooed. "Ve can become vonderful friends now zat I'm living vith jou for a month!"

"I think I'm gonna cry..."

"Get used to it, Human," the seeker spat. "Move out of here. You're stinking up the place."

"Yeah, it is time to roll," Lockdown admitted. "Let's get you organics back home. I personally don't like the fact Blitzwing is in on this but I suppose it can't hurt to have an extra pair of optics on you three."

"I'm not letting jou near zem," Icy said almost defensively. "At least zhey like me more zhan jou."

"You still talk like you're high and mighty even though I'm taller than you now." He clicked his glossa. "I'm gonna have fun smacking you around." Lockdown turned around. "Let's go, kiddies."

Darien and Amanda followed him like sheep following their shepherd. They followed him as he walked to the mouth of the corridor which led to the outside of the mine. However, Blitzwing didn't budge. When he didn't move, neither did Cynthia.

Instead, Blitzwing turned around and faced Starscream. He was massively displeased that he couldn't destroy him for unmasking the secret but he figured it could wait for now. Without looking at Cyndi, he grabbed her hand and held it in his servo.

"Jou can't vin," he said to him. "Zis var is over between us. I'm still vith her and ve're alive."

"It's not over until it's over," Starscream stated simply. "You have one month to be with her. I hope you enjoy it well. She'll be dead." He smirked at Cynthia. "Remember, Cynthia? We're at war with each other."

In an instant, she knew who exactly had replied to her note all the way back in December. She swallowed hard but wore a brave face before him, showing Starscream she wasn't going to submit and perish. If he wanted a war, she was going to give him a war. Blitzwing was on her side and she knew she had a true and powerful ally in him. There was no way she was going to lose. If she did lose, slaughter would undoubtedly ensue.


	31. Making the Most of Things

**People, thanks for the reviews! I was happy to get them and I'm glad that everyone likes this new twist in comparison to the old one. So, to comment on this chapter... There is a fair amount of drama and tenstion in it. Hopefully you'll get a little psychological insight into the minds of the Humans too. Hopefully it doesn't suck and I managed to convey the feelings of urgency and desperation. I was also a little wary about posting it for reasons you'll see soon enough. Enjoy the chapter!**

**WARNING: there are hints to suggestive scenarios and there is some mild intimacy (it's not pr0n though, I promise! I don't write lemons/smut. This story is staying T) in this chapter. I just felt like warning anyone who might be crept out (I admit I was slightly frightened when I wrote this... I questioned my sanity shortly afterwards). **

Chapter 31 Making the Most of Things

(apartment – 1:00pm)

Her head was pounding like a bongo drum even before she opened up her eyes. Cynthia tried to move over to her left but nearly rolled off her makeshift bed which was the living room couch. She remembered she wasn't in her own bed because she surrendered it to Blitzwing. As soon as he laid down on it to try it out, he slipped into recharge. When she saw this seven foot tall, three or four hundred-something pound, sleeping, metal man in her bed, she didn't want to push him out. Luckily, she had a metal frame for her mattress and the bed didn't collapse on itself when he laid down on it.

Stretching her limbs out, she yawned loudly and pried her eyelids open. She heard nothing and assumed everyone was still sleeping. It was around five in the morning when the organics and their alien guardians made it to the apartment and sunlight was beginning to bloom on the horizon. Some birds even began waking up and chirping as the sun was gaining dominion over the moon. There was no way Darien was going to attend the last day of school and luckily, Amanda didn't have to go to work.

Sneaking Blitzwing into the living space was a bit tricky. He didn't even fit into the doorway because of his wing struts. So he had to walk in sideways to even enter the apartment. Amanda and Darien went straight into their respective rooms to catch up on their interrupted sleep. No one talked to each other or pestered one another. Everyone was simply drained from the ordeal. Lockdown decided to take refuge in the wooded lot behind the apartment complex and check up on everyone once they had gotten some sleep.

Cynthia pushed the quilt off her body with her feet and sat up. She massaged her face with her palms, still feeling achy and drained as if a vampire had been sucking the life from her. Her headache was still persisting obnoxiously and she just knew that the rest of the day was going to pure Hell. She wasn't so much a staunch pessimist but that was the impression she was getting.

Her spine cracked as she stood up and walked into the kitchen. Unfortunately for Cyndi, she wasn't aware of her surroundings entirely and she wasn't watching her footing. She slipped and fell right onto her butt, landing in a pool of orange juice.

For a few seconds, she sat in the puddle, letting her pajama pants get ruined from the juice. Her eyes were widened as she looked around the kitchen, observing a scene of carnage and destruction. Cynthia even wondered how she slept through what had happened. It looked as if the Tasmanian Devil had swept into the kitchen and completely demolished the room.

There was an opened gallon of chocolate chip ice cream on the floor. The frozen treat was turning into a melted blob that was starting to ooze all over the tiled floor. A kitchen cabinet was wide open, showing that all the plates, bowls and glasses were tipped over or otherwise accumulated into an organized lump of kitchenware. There was a large steak knife that was sticking into the wall as if someone was playing darts with it. The refrigerator door was wide open, letting out a blast of chilly air. In the refrigerator, there was a jug of milk that was tipped over and it soaked the interior entirely. The oven was turned on and in it, she could see a cantaloupe that was being roasted.

"Oh, you idiot!" she cursed.

Cynthia got off her rump and hustled over to the oven. She shut it off and opened up the oven door, hastily removing the fruit. She disregarded the fact she nearly burnt her fingerprints off in the process. Promptly, she deposited it into the sink. When she did that, she saw that the entire sink was filled up to the brim with water. Groaning, her headache worsened. A harsh scowl graced her face.

"Blitzwing."

She heard the toilet flush. In a heartbeat, she raced out of the ruined kitchen and down the hallway. Cynthia burst into the bathroom, expecting to see Blitzwing trying to flush a bottle of shampoo down the toilet.

"Woah, what the Hell?" Amanda said groggily. She was finishing pulling up her pants. "Can I pee in peace?"

"He's dead," Cynthia only said. "The kitchen looks like a school cafeteria in the aftermath of a food fight!"

"Wait, what?"

"While we were sleeping, Blitzwing tore the kitchen apart. I'm going to strangle him! I thought he was in here and I was going to come in and throttle him. He decided to roast the cantaloupe in the oven!"

"Sounds like him… We'll get him to clean it all up."

"Where is he?"

"I don't know, calm down, Cyndi. I'm still half asleep."

Then they heard a high pitched giggling originating from Cynthia's room. Without a moment to lose, they exited the bathroom. The girls almost ripped the bedroom door off its hinges when they pushed it open.

When they entered the bedroom, they saw Blitzwing standing by Cyndi's dresser whose drawers were all opened up. In his left servo, he was holding one of her bras which was white with light blue lace. He was looking right back at the two sisters with a sheepish, devious grin on his face.

"Cynzhia, zis zhing is sexy," Random complimented. "Can jou try it on for me?"

"What did you do to the kitchen?" she fumed at him.

"I vas bored and everyone vas sleeping so I decided to explore. I tasted zat food jou call ice cream but it vas too cold for me!"

"You ate my ice cream?" Amanda suddenly yelled. "You are forbidden to eat my ice cream! I'm gonna drive my foot up your big metal ass!"

"Yeah, it's all over the kitchen floor now," Cynthia exacerbated things for Blitzwing.

"WHAT?"

The blonde stormed out of the room and bolted to the kitchen to salvage what she could of her favorite treat. Blitzwing held the bra up to Cyndi. His grin didn't fade away.

"Pretty please?" he begged.

"No, I'm mad at you," she spat. "Go clean up the mess in the kitchen. You're not sleeping in my bed tonight either. You can sleep in the woods with Lockdown." She tore her bra out of his servo. "I brought you into my home and you tore it up! Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Jou vere snoring so loud despite ze fact jou looked like jou vere dead," said Hothead. "I tried to vake jou up but jou turned over and even slapped me in ze face. So I decided to leave jou alone. Vhen I get bored, I get destructive."

"Yeah, clearly. Now you clean it up."

"Not yet."

"Why not?" She tossed her article of clothing aside. "You caused the havoc so you fix it. I'm not living in a pigsty."

"Because I don't feel like it right now. Just give me a second, Cyndi. Look at me."

She sighed ponderously but looked at him. What she was seeing before herself was Blitzwing but scaled down to a smaller size. Now he could be with her within the comfort of her home without the use of his holoform. At first, she thought it would be pleasant but now that he tore apart the kitchen, she wasn't looking forward to a month of boredom induced chaos.

"Yeah, I see a dead man in front of me if he doesn't get working on the kitchen," Cynthia said shortly. "Clean it up and I'll be nicer to you."

"I don't zhink jou understand," he said. He took a few steps closer to her. Their bodies were not even a few inches away now. Millimeters was the correct unit of measurement now. "Look at vhat I can do now."

His arms came around her, pulling her close to his body. Blitzwing's large servos rested across the base of her spine. Then he hoisted her up off the floor, so that their eye level matched one another. Cynthia wrapped her arms around his neck to gain a good grip on him.

"Different, isn't it?" Icy purred. He drew his face closer. His mouth was right by her ear. "I zhink I vill enjoy zis."

He kissed her neck in a series of soft, brief pecks. Cynthia felt her arm muscles tighten as she strengthened her hold around his neck. Goose bumps formed on her flesh and she felt like she was being pricked with a million needles all over her body. Although the needle sensation wasn't actually painful, she felt tantalized and edgy. She was mildly startled by the emotions in her that she felt. He was actually holding her and kissing her normally now that their size differences had been much less of an issue. The reality that he was actually holding her in his arms astonished and excited her.

Cynthia exhaled softly, breathing on his neck. His servos ran up and down her back, massaging her and tempting her to go slack in his hold. This never happened to her before and it felt absolutely wonderful. She even forgot about the fact that she was angry with him only a minute earlier. The side of her head rubbed up against his helm as if it was made of the softest, most luxurious and regal velvet. Warmth enveloped her entire body, making her want to fall asleep right where she was.

She wanted to break free so that she could get him to clean up his mess in the kitchen but she had no motivation or strength. More than anything else, she felt like a boneless, malleable hunk of flesh. If she could compare herself to anything at the moment, it would be a four limbed octopus. With each kiss he placed on her deliciously agonized neck, Cynthia felt herself drifting off and less in tune with the world around her. The way his cool metal lips felt on her sensitive warm flesh only helped to further spiral her into this weird trance she entered.

"Zis is nice," he whispered, ceasing the kissing. His servo stroked the back of her skull. "Now I can touch jou vithout hurting jou."

When he spoke, it was as if a spell had been broken. It was so bizarre. For the time he had been kissing and caressing her, she felt as if she had been teleported up to cloud nine. All she knew was his touch: so soothing, gentle and yet euphoric. It was so uncharacteristic of him that she even forgot this was Blitzwing who was doing this to her. She was so used to careful kisses and very little touching because of their vast height issue. But the fact a seven foot tall Blitzwing was touching and kissing her like a man of her own stature and species startled her. It even started to frighten her as the reality sunk in. She began to panic.

"Put me down," she commanded.

Clearly, he heard the rising distress in her voice. Without a second to lose, he set her down on her feet. However, he still kept a servo on her. Concern consumed him and the triple changer pondered what exactly was going on.

"Cyndi, vhat's going on?" asked Hothead. "Vhy are jou freaking out?"

Why was she acting this way? It was irrational from a lover's point of view considering they were a couple. But from a typical Human standpoint, this was sacrilegiously wrong. This alien, this galactic terror, was enjoying himself and pleasuring her with this closeness that could never exist between them before. When he held her so close and kissed her, she felt a sensation she never felt before. Cynthia had known about it extensively but now it happened to her for the first time ever.

"Vhat's vrong?" He shook her slightly to snap her out of her thoughts. "Cyndi, answer me."

"N-nothing," was her answer. She could feel heat fester in her face. "I'm alright. I just got really bad chills."

"No, I don't zhink so. Don't lie to me. I don't like it vhen jou do zat."

"Did I do somezhing?" Random cocked his helm. His smile had become a frown. "Jou can be honest vith me, Cyndi. It's me!"

She loved him. But she was somewhat appalled at herself when she discovered she was actually lusting after him. Cynthia didn't have the heart or stomach to tell him how she felt for fear of breaking his spark. The last thing she wanted was to lose him especially after their love somehow survived Megatron's wrath. She straight out refused to lose him because she had a hard time accepting the fact he was exciting her.

Blitzwing was still Blitzwing. He had only changed in height. Other than that, he was still the one she fell in love with. This was no stranger like she believed he was when he touched her and kissed her in these new ways.

"No, you didn't do anything wrong," she said, trying to get over the whole thing. "I'm just having a hard time believing you're like this." The woman laughed softly. "It's new. It's unexpected but it's new."

Random's notorious smile made a comeback. He looked at her, completely enamored with her. Although he didn't really particularly foresee this when he had shrunk, he discovered how wonderful it was to finally hold her in his arms without crushing her like a twig. To be able to kiss her neck and actually move up and down it fascinated him. When he moved his servos up and down her back, exploring her at last through touch, it blew his processor. His spark was pulsating wildly and his circuitry felt like it was overheating.

Grinning happily, Blitzwing took her hand. He brought it up to his mouth and kissed it. Then he released her.

"I love jou, Cyndi," he said simply yet deeply.

Before she could say something back at him, someone cleared their throat. Blitzwing and Cynthia looked over to the bedroom door, seeing Darien watching them.

"How much did jou see, boy?" Hothead demanded.

"Did I miss something?" Darien asked. "I got up two minutes ago and I walked out of my bedroom, seeing the both of you standing together." His eyes widened. "Oh my sweet God in Heaven…"

"No, no, no, no, no!" Cynthia said rapidly. "None of that, you little pervert. I have clothes on!"

"Why are your pants wet?"

"Darien, I slipped and fell on my butt in a puddle of orange juice!"

"And my ice cream is ruined!" Amanda yelled from the kitchen. "Thanks, Blitzwing!"

"That's right, you have a kitchen to clean up."

"Do it vith me," Random begged. "I promise I vill never destroy ze kitchen again. I'm sorry but I vas just curious! I've never lived vith Humans before!"

She couldn't say "no" to the pouty expression he wore. Cynthia rolled her eyes.

"Oh, fine," she said. "I'll help you. But you better be on your best behavior for the rest of the day or you won't get to sleep in my bed. I mean it when I say I will make you sleep in the woods with your friend."

"I vill kill him before I share ze same voods vith him!" Hothead vented. "Vhere is zat son of a glitch anyvay?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen him yet. He'll probably be in soon though."

Darien moved out of the doorway with his sister and their new roommate in tow. From their position, they could hear Mandy muttering and cursing. They exited the hallway and walked into the kitchen where Amanda stood holding her corrupted gallon of ice cream.

"It's not good now," she said, talking directly to Blitzwing. "You ruined it. I can't stand this stupidity already!"

With force, she slammed the ice cream to the ground, making it splatter everywhere. Her hands were balled up into fists and she looked like she was ready to punch the bot. The younger sister's body was even quivering with fury and her left eye was twitching like a squashed cockroach's leg.

"Are you an animal?" she furiously interrogated. "Does my sister have to chain you up somewhere so you don't rip everything apart? I've been awake for ten minutes and I can't take it!"

"Mandy, calm down," Cynthia urged. "I'm going to help him clean it up and he won't cause a mess like this again, I promise."

"Cyndi, you're acting like he's a little kid! He ain't a kid! He's a shrunken Decepticon living in our apartment! He's going to be living with us for a month, Cyndi! A month! Does that register?"

"If I remember correctly, Amanda," Icy pointed out, "jou vere looking forvard to me coming vith jou because Lockdown is supposed to be safeguarding jou. To be honest, I'm getting sick of jour games, child."

"Excuse me, a child? I am not a child! I'm going to be turning nineteen next week!"

"Jou vant me on jour side because jou don't like Lockdown. But zhen vhen I come in to save jou, jou treat me horridly. I don't take kindly to zat at all."

"At least you're useful for something other than acting like a lunatic."

Darien exhaled heavily. He was in no mood for bickering. Lazily, he left them and walked over to the refrigerator whose door was still wide open. Ignoring the filth around him, he looked through the refrigerator to find something to eat that Blitzwing didn't ruin.

"If I vasn't in love vith jour sister, jou vould've been dead!" said Hothead.

"I'm aware of that, Captain Obvious," Amanda bit back. "Before you even leave this kitchen, we need to have rules established."

"Really, is this necessary?" Cynthia sighed. Her headache returned.

"I vant to hear zhose rules," said Blitzwing. "I vant to hear zem so I can break every single one of zem!"

"Oh-ho, alright!" Amanda laughed shortly. "Number one, don't touch any of my stuff! Number two, don't touch my toothbrush! I can only imagine what you'd do to it!"

"Exactly, the possibilities are endless especially with that lunatic."

Everyone in the kitchen except Darien (who was still rummaging through the refrigerator ignoring everything) snapped their heads to the direction of the living room where the comment suddenly came from. In the living room, leaning against the couch, was Lockdown in his holoform.

"Did you ever hear of knocking?" Mandy fumed.

"I don't need to knock since we're all friends here," he said. "We can come and go as we please."

"I'm not jour friend," Blitzwing smugly stated. "I vant to murder jou!"

"You are not welcome here," Amanda growled.

"Well, too bad," the holoform frowned. "I'm here whether you like it or not. Megatron's orders, remember? Besides, I didn't even volunteer for this."

When Lockdown had thrown himself into the mix, the atmosphere automatically became many times tenser. Blitzwing and Amanda glared at him banefully, wanting him to leave more than anything else. The bounty hunter only held his ground, knowing he was a very unwelcome presence in the abode even more so than the triple changer. Cynthia was too occupied with trying to be the mediator between her lover and her sister in order to really bear any hostility towards Lockdown. Darien simply chose to not care about what was going on around him. He managed to find a tiny carton of apple juice, opened it up and drank it down in a few gulps.

"Alright, well, I have to say something," said Cynthia, shattering the lingering feeling of war hanging in the air. "We all have to learn how to calm down and not go at each other's throats like a bunch of jackals."

"I'm all for it," Darien said, throwing the apple juice carton in the garbage can. "I want to have peace because I can't stand all the screaming and yelling. I had enough of that in that damn base. My nerves are still shot from that experience."

"Vell, I'm Cyndi's guardian," Random said, pulling her close to him. His arms came around her possessively. "She's my femme and I don't vant zat hook anyvhere near her! I don't vant it to tear up her pretty face."

"Wait, we can't just start claiming organics," said Lockdown.

"Lockdown, I'm dead serious," Hothead warned. "If jou touch her, I vill tear jour spark out. Because jou took up Starscream's offer, I almost lost her."

"At least I didn't kill her like Starscream really wanted me to do at first. But then he changed his mind because he knew Megatron would want to see her."

"I belong to no one," Amanda declared. "I'm no one's pet! I want to be able to go to work and have a good time with my coworkers without someone halfway up my ass."

"I'm afraid I'll have to accompany you to work to make sure you don't try to tell anyone about your predicament. You are somewhat untrustworthy in Megatron's optics."

Blitzwing chuckled softly. He was well aware of what her reaction was going to be to what Lockdown just said.

Amanda's jaw dropped and she stomped into the living room where the illusory man stood. She pointed a finger at him and jabbed him in his chest. When she did that, her finger went right through him and the holoform fizzled and distorted slightly. Her eyes widened and she recoiled with a tiny yelp. Then she rebuilt her confidence.

"I can't have privacy even amongst my friends?" she questioned. "I don't think so, buddy."

"Blondie, you have no choice," he remarked dourly.

"Don't even zhink about asking me to safeguard jou," Icy added. "I von't park in front of a grocery store vhile I'm a jet or tank. People vill zhink zat is very suspicious. I'm not changing my vehicle modes eizher."

"Screw you!" Amanda spun around to face him.

"Mandy, go cool off in your room if you're going to act like a stuck-up child," Cynthia ordered. Her hands were placed on her hips. Blitzwing let her go and she approached her sister. "No one wants to listen to your constant whining and complaining."

"Oh, guess what, Cyndi? It just dawned on me that we have a month to figure out how three puny little Humans can serve the head Decepticreep!"

"Yes, I am aware of that. I'm sure we can figure out something by July."

"We have to! If we don't, we die! Cyndi, I didn't ask to become a slave! I didn't ask for any of this crazy shit!" Tears came to her pale green eyes. "I don't deserve any of this! This is all your fault that this is happening! You can become a slave to Megatron because you're Blitzwing's girl but I don't want to! I like my life the way it is! Last time I checked, I hate Decepticons!" She pointed at Blitzwing. "I hate you and that asshole bounty hunter! I hope the Autobots win because I love my species enough! I don't want the Human race to die out! I don't want to be a traitor! Because of you and my sister, I'm ruined!"

"It's your own fault, Amanda! You had to be an invasive little witch as usual and you found it out on your own! Curiosity killed the cat, right? Go to your room and calm down!"

"You ain't Mom! But I'm sick of looking at damn robots so I'll go!"

Fuming, she stomped off to retreat into her bedroom. With an explosively loud slam, she closed her door. A loud click sounded a second later, alerting everyone she locked herself in her room. Another moment later, a thump sounded which was a shoe that had been thrown at a wall in her bedroom. Amanda cursed and swore for a few seconds before her voice ceased to speak altogether.

Cynthia sighed heavily, holding back some stray tears. Her hands came up to her face and she ran her fingers through her hair. A little sniffle escaped but she refused to display any more signs of weakness.

"She's a firecracker," Lockdown noted.

Cyndi ignored his comment completely. She sat down on the couch, not caring that Lockdown was staring directly behind her. The woman kept her back to the two inorganic beings and to her brother. As she was looking away from them, she felt her eyes burning.

"Cyndi," said Darien. He moved past Blitzwing and Lockdown. The boy stood right next to her seat on the couch. "Cyndi."

She didn't answer him. Neither did she even want to look at Darien. Some tears dripped from her eyes and fell onto her pant leg.

"Blushy," Random called Cyndi by the nickname he gave her.

Blitzwing exited the kitchen. He gruffly pushed past the holoform, forcing Lockdown to move aside. The bounty hunter glared at him hatefully but the other mech dismissed it. His fingers ran through her hair.

"Everyone get out of the living room, please," she said monotonously. "I need to be alone for a few minutes."

Darien knew where this was going. Immediately and without any rebellion, he walked backwards. He made his way to his bedroom to allow Cynthia to cool off.

"Cyndi, are jou okay?" Blitzwing didn't get the hint. His servo rested on her shoulder. "Talk to me."

"Honey Bunch," Cynthia said with rising ire. "Handsome, Baby, Iron Angel…" She turned around and faced him. "If you don't leave me alone right now, I will make all three of your faces scream like little girls."

"Ooh, okay zhen! Ze femme gets vhat she vants! Jour var face is very impressive!"

"Get out!"

"I'm going!" He paused. "But vhat about ze kitchen..?"

"GET OUT!"

Lockdown smirked upon seeing Blitzwing flinch at the intensity of her voice. Realizing that now was the most appropriate time, he decided to leave and reenter the residence after the tension died down a little. His holoform dematerialized within a matter of seconds, leaving behind no evidence that he actually was in the apartment.

Blitzwing's first instincts were to comfort her and be by her side. But judging from her splintered temper, he resolved that it was wisest to give her the peace she wanted. He also had no desire to get into a fight with her.

"Come to vhen jou are ready," said Icy. "I'll be in jour room."

"Whatever," was her impersonal reply.

She looked away from him and buried her face into her hands. The sound of his footsteps against the carpeted floor informed her that he was walking away from her. Those footsteps faded as he put distance between them. When she heard the faint creaking of her bedroom door, Cynthia believed it was her cue to let loose the floodgates.

Her mouth opened up as if in agony but no noise came out. Her face was flushed a deep red and it was moist from her tears. Cynthia's hands trembled as she placed them on the side of her head, covering her ears. A few seconds later, a shaky wail came out from her mouth.

"I'm so sorry!" she blubbered to herself. She began to hyperventilate. "I am so sorry! I am such a selfish person!"

The weight of her conscious and Amanda's vicious rant had taken a toll on her. All the gargantuan amount of stress she endured with Megatron took a toll on her and truthfully, she was surprised she didn't snap from the pressure of it. Now, her sister's words had done their damage and prompted her to think about what kind of person she had become since she fell in love with Blitzwing.

"Am I really so selfish?" she thought to herself. "Of course I don't want them to become slaves to him… But I lived for the moment and completely ignored the consequences. I don't want to work for the Decepticons either. This is my fault. I should've never kissed Blitzwing. Yet I can't regret him… Darien, Mandy, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I ruined your lives…"

(two hours later)

Cynthia didn't really want to walk into her bedroom. She was more than ready to assume Blitzwing would be mad at her for pushing him away from her. The last thing she needed was to have some more stress piled onto her like bundles of silk loaded onto the back of a caravan camel.

Building up enough courage, she opened up her mouth. She cleared her throat. Her heart was ready to jump up into her throat especially if he was going to react meanly to her as she did to him.

"Are you in there?" she asked, reaching out for the doorknob.

"Of course," it was Icy that was talking to her. "I said I vas going to be in here."

"I'm coming in."

With a slight creak, she pushed the door open. Instantly, she caught sight of him lying on her bed. Internally, she groaned since she hoped she'd be the one who'd lie on the bed. It was hers after all.

Blitzwing sat up.

"Are jou better now?" he said.

"Yeah, for the most part," Cyndi remarked.

"Good," Random nodded. He stretched his arms out. "Jou need a hug."

Her posture was slumped and depressive. Her aura oozed of low self esteem and exhaustion. More than anything else, she wanted to crawl into her bed and fall asleep until a thousand years passed.

"I'm sorry," she said, not moving towards him.

"Hug me!" he said adamantly, sounding like a child. "Jou'll feel better if jou do."

She saw he wasn't going to cease this. Blitzwing's arms were still outstretched. His servos opened and closed as if he wanted something. Cynthia counted her blessings as she gazed sullenly back at him while he wore his usual large, eerily sunny grin.

"Cyndi," he sang. "Don't make me…"

"Come over zhere and drag jou back over!" Hothead finished.

There was no desire in her heart and soul to feud with him just because he wanted to embrace her and she felt like a storm cloud. Sighing in defeat, she walked over to him. Her hands rested on her hips and she rested on her left leg. The arms came across her chest and she wore a tiny smile.

"Here I am," she said. "What're you doing sitting there?"

One of his arms came out and wrapped it around her waist. He pulled her to him and seated Cynthia onto his lap. His other arm came around her and hugged her close to him. Cyndi rested her head against his chest. To her slight surprise, he felt warm and not cold.

"Don't be sorry," he said. "I'm not."

"No, I'm sorry about what I've done to my family," Cynthia corrected. "I've doomed them by falling in love with you. They shouldn't have to be forced to serve Megatron. I'm the one that should because we're together."

"Vhat's done is done. Zis is past ze point of no return, Cyndi. All jou can do is soldier on."

"I'm scared though. I'm scared for them too."

"I vill protect and take care of jou. I zhink everyone at ze base knows zat I vill destroy anyone who dares to hurt jou so zhey vill back off."

"I vill also look after jour siblings," said Icy. "I know jou care for zem deeply and I vill do vhat I can to vatch after zem for jour sake. All jou have to do is trust me. I know zat Starscream and Lugnut vill not like jour presences but zhey vill learn to deal vith it."

"I'm sorry about yelling at you earlier too. I was just under a lot of pressure. It was totally uncalled for. I know you were only trying to comfort me."

She looked up at him when she heard a chuckle. Blitzwing brought his faceplate in close to hers, her nose touching the peculiar nasal plate the blue face donned. His face was so close to hers, Cynthia could've sworn she could see the intricate mechanisms inside the optics despite the ruby glow.

"Forget it," he said. "I understand. No one comforts me vhen I feel horrid so and I am often left alone to deal vith my voes by myself. But since ve have each ozher, vhy not comfort one anozher?"

"Besides," Random usurped Icy, "I can't stop hugging jou, Cyndi!"

He embraced her tightly, compressing the air out of her lungs. Cynthia gasped loudly, not expecting this sudden bear hug. Blitzwing nuzzled her and giggled into her ear. Then he kissed her cheek.

"Can't…breathe..!" she gagged. "Release!"

"Oh, zat's right!" the triple changer exclaimed. "I can hug jou but I can't do it too hard! I vill break jou like a toothpick!"

Without a moment to lose, he loosened his grip on her but still kept her close to him. Cyndi breathed in deeply a few times and leaned up against his chest for support. Her sweetheart giggled contently.

"Can I have a kiss from jou?" he questioned almost shyly like a love struck six year old boy. "I vould love one!"

Without anything in her eyes other than serenity, she gazed back at him. There was something so Human about him at times that it almost blew her mind. The way he craved her attention and affection certainly was an organic trait. Although she knew he was certainly bloodthirsty, destructive and chaotic, he could quickly be reduced to a puppy in her midst if the conditions were right. It warmed her heart to know that he truly did love and continue to want to be with her even after the close call with Megatron. It only reinforced her belief he could be tamed further. Cynthia knew it was possible that Blitzwing was just simply too unstable to be subdued but she didn't really care. Somehow she saw the human in the inhuman.

She raised a hand. Almost admiringly, she ran her palm up and down the side of his faceplate. His optics shut and he seemed to be enjoying her caress. Blitzwing moved his helm up and down, following the movement of her hand. As she pet him, to her great surprise, she could've sworn that he was somehow purring like an oversized cat. Cynthia giggled at this discovery and scratched his chin. When she did that, he nearly loosened his grip on her completely since he felt so relaxed.

"Ooh, zat feels good!" he crooned. "But I vant a kiss!"

"I was working on that," said Cynthia.

For a fleeting second, her thoughts turned back to the bizarre moments that occurred in the very same room two hours earlier. Her stomach fell for a second but then a realization struck her. Now she could understand why he was so touchy. When the month was up, his safeguarding duties would be obsolete and he would return to his normal height. Everything would revert to light, cautious kisses and gentle caresses. He wouldn't be able to hold her arms like he did now. It wasn't everyday when he was somewhat at her level.

Before Blitzwing could pout any more about not getting a kiss, Cynthia moved her face in closer to his. Her lips fell upon his mouth. The arms came around his neck, pinning herself against him. It was her room and she could do whatever she pleased in it.

* * *

><p><strong>Please don't ask me to write a lemon between them because I won't. Even I have to admit it's creepy. Hugs and kisses is all you'll be getting!<strong>


	32. Adaptation

**Hey guys thanks for the reviews/fave/alert! So, a little about this chapter... It may be a little borderline creepy but at the same time, I tried to make it cute. We also learn more about Darien's love interest, Tristan, towards the very end of the chapter. Hopefully you'll like what you read! Please R&R and enjoy as usual!**

Chapter 32 Adaptation 

(later that night – 8:30pm)

"_That's… that's an impact tremor is what it is… I'm fairly alarmed here._"

Darien shoved a handful of extra buttery popcorn into his mouth. He had never seen "_Jurassic Park_" before and so far, he loved every single minute of it so far. The boy hardly even blinked because he was so engrossed with it. If the hard ceramic cup in his hand was made of fine glass, it would've shattered due to his grip. At first, he was reluctant to watch the movie because he had his heart set on watching some other flick that consisted of scantily clad women, car chases and explosions. But with each minute that passed, he could care less about viewing a typical "dude film".

In fact, he was so captured by the film that he completely forgot that his new roommate was sitting next to him on the couch. Blitzwing was interested in the movie as well but he wasn't consumed by it like Darien was. Random wouldn't cease with running his mouth about dinosaurs in general. He constantly asked about how many kinds there were, their names, how big they got, what they ate and so on and so forth. Hothead was too busy laughing at the organics' misfortunes. Icy remained silent for the most part, observing the movie with subtle interest just waiting to point out some sort of discrepancy.

Cynthia was trying to maintain her sanity and patience. After some extra coaxing, she managed to make him clean up his mess in the kitchen. It took about forty five minutes or an hour to clean up everything but it had been done. Now, she had to try to curb Blitzwing's destructive tendencies when boredom hit him. Since three in the afternoon, she bribed him with television. Luckily for her, he had quickly taken an interest in it although he already was aware of such technology. But when he chose to watch "_Jurassic Park_", she set a monster free. Unfortunately for her, Cyndi knew virtually nothing about dinosaurs other than the fact some were carnivores and others were herbivores. Quite understandably, her endurance level was whittling with every question Random asked about the prehistoric animals of yesteryear.

"_Is zis based on a true story?... Vhere do jou zhink I could get a baby Velociraptor as a pet?... Vould a T-Rex be able to tear apart an Autobot?..._"

"I'd be sick too if I had as much vaste as zat Triceratops!" Blitzwing said suddenly even though the certain scene in the movie had passed over a half an hour earlier.

Darien completely ignored him. Cyndi said nothing either and blankly stared at the TV.

"Come on, jou stiffs!" Hothead taunted. "Vhy is everyone still so quiet?"

"Too busy," Darien replied hollowly. He threw in another handful of popcorn into his mouth. "Too focused now."

"And jou?" He turned to Cynthia who was held captive in his grip. One of his arms was wrapped around her, keeping her close to him. "I zhought jou vere feeling better. Jou had zis happy look on jour face after jou kissed me for five minutes."

Darien shot a questioning glance at his sister.

"Five seconds," Cynthia lied. Her face was reddening.

"No, five minutes," Blitzwing asserted.

The seventeen year old shook his head, preferring to not think about what happened when he was confined to his room after Cynthia told him to leave. A tiny chill ran up his spine, a little disturbed at the thought of his sister face-munching an alien robot. This was going to possibly be the longest and most unsettling month of his young life.

"I want to keep my popcorn in my stomach," he said softly.

Cynthia was embarrassed. As far as she was concerned, what happened in her bedroom stayed in her bedroom. It wasn't a five second kiss like she tried to tell Darien. She was sitting on his lap with her arms wrapped around his neck. Her face was firmly planted onto his. During those minutes, she felt no shame since she was completely overtaken by the feelings she felt for him. Now that he mentioned it to her brother, she felt heat fester in her face.

"Shut it," she whispered to Blitzwing.

"Just telling ze truth," he said sullenly.

Another thing that was starting to annoy her was that her beau was always touching her. When she sat down, he joined her and had his arms around her. In a way, he was actually cuddlier than what she wished him to be. Cyndi didn't foresee him to be so affectionate and touchy feely considering he was a Decepticon. Obviously, he was more fascinated at being smaller and being able to embrace and kiss her than she was.

"Alright, we all need to talk," Cynthia announced. She raised her voice. "Mandy, get in here and join us. Seven hours of isolation is long enough!"

"About vhat?" Blitzwing asked.

Cyndi was momentarily taken aback by what she perceived to be a moment of idiocy. The purple and beige bot looked right back at her, wondering why she was observing him with a condescending tint to her eyes.

"Vas it somezhing I said?" Random pondered.

Deciding that she was sick of being a great big child's teddy bear, Cyndi attempted to worm her way free out of his powerful grasp. Blitzwing snickered at her futility. Chuckling, he tightened his hold on her.

"Let me go!" she demanded.

"No," he teased. "Jou're so soft and varm! Besides, ve are relaxing now. Remember, everyone's still freaked out by vhat happened earlier. Our problems can vait until later."

"No, they can't! Did you forget that Megatron gave my siblings and I an ultimatum to deal with?"

"I said I vas going to take care of jou zhree. It's ok, Cyndi! Jou'll be alright."

"If we don't come up with a decision on how to serve Megatron, we're going to die, Blitzwing! Did you forget that?"

Random's smile faded away miraculously. He looked like he was mulling the matter over for a few moments. Then he shook his helm and his usual grin made an inevitable return.

"Take jour time in zhinking about it," said Blitzwing.

"I don't think you understand that if I don't come up with something, you'll never see me again because I will be DEAD!" she nearly yelled in his face. "Don't tell me you're that dense!"

"Preferably, I don't want to think about it at all," said Darien. His eyes widened slightly as the Tyrannosaurus chased the jeep on the television. "I want to try to avoid it as much as I can. I don't have a clue what I can do. I don't want to worry about it until it's the end of June."

Cynthia was disgusted by the laxity everyone displayed. Her jaw dropped when she heard Darien's words. She growled angrily and again tried to free herself from Blitzwing's arms. Again, her efforts were in vain.

"Oh, that's great, Darien!" she said sarcastically. "I'm glad to hear you don't care about your life."

"Cynzhia, jou have to calm down now," Icy retorted seriously. "Jour siblings are emotionally drained from zheir experiences zat happened in ze early hours. I do not vish to fight vith anyone right now, especially jou. My chassis still aches from ze blows Megatron gave me. All I vish to do is recuperate. I can clearly see jou are just as stressed as everyone else. But before jou tackle ze problem of how to serve Megatron, jou must collect jourself. Jou cannot afford to vork jourself up more and break down into tears like jou did earlier. Can jou please do zat for me?"

"I'm scared like I said so earlier." She shook her head. "I don't want to fight either but I want to have an idea of what to do."

"Zat is anozher reason vhy I am here. I almost lost jou because ve vere discovered. I von't let him zhreaten jour existence again. And jou know vhy I am doing zhis and telling jou zhese zhings, Cynzhia."

He kissed the side of her head. Seeing truths in his mini-monologue, she got comfortable in his arms. She didn't see herself being released from them anytime soon.

Blitzwing turned his helm to the left when he heard a door creak in the hallway. He caught sight of Amanda whom was finally emerging from her room. She had yet to notice him even when she walking down the hall and into the living room. Her attention had been devoted to smoothing out the wrinkles in a plain green t-shirt that she was wearing.

"Vhere are jou off to?" he asked.

"Nowhere, Father," Mandy spat back. "I need to get some fresh air. Cyndi, I'm going to hang outside for a bit. I'm not going anywhere."

"Fine," Cynthia said tiredly.

The blonde Preston approached the door and turned the knob. She slid through the crack in the door and softly closed it behind her. It was a massive improvement considering her marked history of violent door slamming.

"I don't care what Amanda says or thinks," Darien said without looking at the couple. "You're cool, Blitzwing. You're decent for a Decepticon. You can marry my sister any day."

Neither Cynthia nor Blitzwing smiled.

(outside)

All she knew was that she had to step out of the apartment before she strangled someone. When she barricaded herself into her room for those seven hours, she cried as softly as she could into her pillow, listened to music and took a nap. She did hear Cynthia cry after she yelled at the males in the apartment to get out and leave her be. A chord was struck in Amanda's heart when she heard her best friend weep but she didn't feel as if she had the strength, both emotional and physical, to confront her. More than anything else, she wanted to be left alone which was so unusual for Amanda since she was such a social butterfly and a gregarious soul.

Mandy walked down the concrete stairwell, leaving the third floor of the complex where her apartment was located. She walked down the stairs until she made it to ground level where the parking lot was. Her eyes scanned the lot, seeing a few stray cars parked but other than that, there were not many other signs of life.

Then she looked up to the sky. The sun had just set and the sky was painted with dark blues, burnt reds, tinges of orange and a smattering of purple here and there. She saw birds fly off into trees, preparing to snuggle into their roosts for the evening. The lampposts kicked on and buzzed softly as the electricity flowed through the light bulb.

For a few moments, she had completely forgotten that not all was as it seemed. She walked along the perimeter of the parking lot. To her left, there was the wooded lot. It was dark and she couldn't see into it very clearly. Her eyes narrowed and she ventured from the concrete sidewalk she was on. Mandy perused the tree line, looking for a pair of sinister optics looking back at her.

"I know you're there," she said, not caring about people who might be nearby. "I'm not in the mood for hide and seek. I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm joining you. I needed to get out of that apartment."

Nothing replied to her but she wasn't discouraged. She believed it when he said he was going to be watching her. Amanda further strayed from the sidewalk and walked across the grass. A few seconds later, she entered the woods.

Now that winter wasn't reigning anymore, Amanda liked to spend more time outdoors. Back home in the Adirondack Mountains, she often took hikes with Cynthia and their father, Robert, into the woods. They'd often be gone for hours, immersed in and exploring the beauty of nature. As much as she loved the city, she knew that nature had a permanent place in her heart. Something about the smell of hemlocks and watching trout swimming through a gently flowing stream was therapeutic to her.

However, she couldn't really enjoy this little oasis of peace for the sole fact she knew an inorganic demon lingered in it.

"Where are you?" she called out. "Lockdown, show yourself."

"Right here."

She saw his optics suddenly appear about fifteen or so feet off the ground. Lockdown blended in so well with the foliage around him that Amanda failed to spot him in the poor visibility twilight offered. Her hands stealthily and slowly curled up into fists and then unfurled.

"Nice," she mumbled. "What are you, a chameleon?"

"No, you're just blind," he replied. "What're you doing out here? I heard you call out me earlier but I didn't want to reply in case other organics heard me… You left because you just needed to get out?"

"I can't stand looking at Blitzwing. I really can't take it. Every single time I see him, I feel like I want to beat his head in with a sledgehammer."

"Ooh, harsh." He sat down on the soft, lush earth. "I thought you liked him more than me too. If you want to attack him with a sledgehammer, you must want to come at me with a nuke."

"I don't know who I hate the most right now." She sighed heavily and shook her head. "All I know is that I needed to get out of my own home… That's just downright pitiful."

He wore no soft or friendly expression on his tattooed faceplate. Amanda found herself becoming slightly unnerved by his intimidating visage. For a moment, she was reminded of when she first met him some months ago. The fear was still lying dormant in her and it was beginning to stir again once she was in his presence. But the stubborn blonde resolutely refused to show weakness before him.

"I hope you realize what you've done," she said as her eyes evolved into hostile slits. "I almost died. My brother almost died. My sister, my closest friend, whom I see as the next closest thing to my mom, almost died. If you didn't have to spy on her and Blitzwing, none of this would be happening."

"As you now, I already knew that your sister and Blitzwing were together," he said, not appreciating the malice in her voice. "I kept it all a secret actually. You know Blitzwing forced me to not say anything. I honestly didn't care that the two were a couple and that's why I told no one about it. I'm not one to spread gossip."

"Well, you broke your promise. And somehow, that broken promise accumulated into all this nonsense I'm knee deep in."

"Starscream was onto him. He asked me to take up the task and spy on Blitzwing. I could've told him that I knew about it before he even did but I didn't."

"You're no hero. Don't you dare paint yourself in a good light!" She pointed a finger at him. "You still betrayed them and-…"

Without warning, his servo lunged for her. She saw the hand reaching for her but Amanda was too shocked to react. A second later, she could feel it constrict around her like a python with its dinner. Lockdown pulled his servo back and brought her close to his deathly looking faceplate. His optics bore impatience and fury in them.

"Put me down!" she began to panic. "You can't kill me!"

"Don't call for him," Lockdown growled toxically. "He's done sticking up for you and then you step all over him. We've only talked a few times before but I already loathe your mannerisms. The only reason why you still live is because Cynthia stops Blitzwing from killing you. You better pick your alliances now, Blondie. If I were you, I'd start kissing Blitzwing's aft because he's sticking up for you and your brother. I know he will watch over the two of you because he knows how much Cynthia cares for you both." He discovered the trace amount of pleasure he was feeling as she squirmed in his grip. "Since you're spouting out rules everywhere, I have to announce a few of my own. I don't need to recite them to Darien or Cynthia because, thank the Allspark, they are much more respectable and calmer than you."

"I hate you…"

"I do not appreciate it when anyone, especially Humans, talk down to me. Megatron himself entrusted me to look after you and your brother and sister and I will not be treated like some kind of dispensable drone. I don't have much tolerance to smart mouths and I'll warn you of that right now. If I think you are becoming too much of a processor ache to bear, I promise I will take you to the base. You will remain there with no one to comfort you. Your company will consist of Megatron, Lugnut, Starscream and the organic professor that saved you from being stomped on. Your three faced knight in shining armor won't be there to save you from any trouble you get yourself into either."

Amanda's eyes widened dramatically as she vividly pictured the scenario. She would be completely cut off from the outside and forced to procure a way to prove herself to Megatron without the guidance of her siblings. The thought had frightened her immensely and it showed by way of her paling complexion. To Mandy's greatest bewilderment, the reality she wouldn't have Blitzwing nearby to protect her mortified her just as much as her siblings' absences. She had fainted in Megatron's midst so Mandy could only imagine what sort of mental state she'd be reduced to if she had to live with him and his other minions for the rest of the month. To her, it was a guaranteed death sentence.

"No!" she pleaded, with a few stray tears emerging. "Don't do this to me! I don't want to die!"

"Then don't treat me like slag," Lockdown revealed. "Mutual respect is all I want. Accept the fact that I am your guardian. I must admit I'm not too thrilled with it either because I'd much rather spook Humans than babysit them. Yet, I will do what I can and try to make it all bearable. At least I'm getting some sort of fair compensation in the end, that's all I care about." He paused briefly. "I'm going to put you down now. Are you going to cooperate? Or will we continue to have issues?"

Whimpering a little, Amanda ceased trying to escape in order to show him she wasn't going to be rebellious. She took a few gasping breaths in an attempt compose herself.

"Don't take me from them," she almost whispered. "Please, don't take me from them… I-I'll deal with it, I promise."

He looked into her frightened eyes for a moment looking to see if there were any slight signs of deceit in them. Lockdown then complied and brought his servo to the ground. His grip on her had been lessened and she was now free from him.

Amanda heaved heavily for a few seconds, trying to calm down further. Her heart rate jumped to an astronomical rate due to the suddenness and intensity of the encounter. She glanced at the normal-looking Cybertronian hand, feeling so grateful it was not his hooked servo that had lashed out at her.

"Now," he said, not taking his optics off her, "I want to ask you a question." She nodded, signaling to him she was indeed listening to him. "Are you going to run back into the apartment and cry on Blitzwing's shoulder and bemoan how horrible I am? Or are you going to be a big girl about it and deal with me?"

His words buzzed around in her head like a hive full of irritated wasps. Mandy stared back at him straight in his optics as her timidity and fear steadily dissipated. Replacing those flighty feelings was confidence and strength. A strong yet indeterminable expression stuck to her face. She looked like a soldier who had at last accepted the reality he needed to sally forth to the battlefront after much denial.

"No," she stated. She sat down on the ground, seating herself from across him. "I'm not doing that. I'll show I'm no pushover. It's you and me, buddy. Blitzwing doesn't need to get wrapped up into this. Besides, you are my guardian, right? As far as I know, Blitzwing has dibs on Cyndi and Darien… I'm stuck with you."

Lockdown had to admit he was amused. He smirked.

"Ah, that's a wise choice," he commented. "Since you can't stand him at the moment, why not stay out here?"

"Why do you think I'm sitting down?" said Amanda. "I might as well sit here and get used to you as much as I can. We are going to be seeing each other every day for a month."

"Good to see you step up to the challenge."

(11:30 pm)

Blitzwing's helm immediately snapped to the direction of the door when he heard the doorknob turn. The noise had startled him and for a moment he thought some stranger was ready to burst in and see him sitting casually on the couch as if he was another Human. If that was the case, the last thing the unfortunate stranger would've seen would be a man-sized Decepticon lunge at him like a tiger. Cynthia was currently fast asleep in his arms but he certainly had no qualms with waking her up in order to preserve her.

The knob turned and he readied himself to slay whoever it was on sight. Then the door pushed open and he prepared to launch himself off the couch in a fraction of a second. His hold on Cynthia loosened.

However when he saw who it was, his murderous yet defensive intentions crumpled. Upon seeing it was a familiar soul, it was all a false alarm.

"Jou had me alarmed for a moment," Random chuckled. "I vas going to break jour neck if jou vere someone else!"

Amanda looked back at him fearfully. She was so glad he waited an extra second before he would end up killing her.

"Umm…" the girl didn't know what to say. "Well, good thing you waited to see who was coming in." She locked the door behind her. Then she faced him again. "Listen, uh…" Mandy wrung her hands nervously. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"I don't see vhy not," Icy said with a tiny scowl.

Hesitantly, she walked over to where he sat on the couch. Mandy spotted Cynthia who was lost in her dreams. She leaned up against it and refused to look away from Blitzwing. Leading him to believe she was weak was not acceptable.

"I'm sorry," she said solemnly and bluntly. "I'm sorry for treating you so badly, Blitzwing. I just wanted to apologize for using you and whatnot. I know you don't like me and I understand if you'll still continue to hate me but I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry."

He studied her quizzically. Blitzwing knew she had a hard head and to see her apologizing to him for her past curtness and disrespect caught him off guard. For a moment, he thought she had been brainwashed or hypnotized into saying sorry.

"Did Lockdown have anyzhing to do vith zhis?" Hothead asked. "Jou vere outside vith him… At least he better had been vatching jou."

Lockdown was the cause of this apology. Amanda really didn't want to admit it but when he grabbed her and spoke to her, she got a very rude awakening. The bounty hunter had scared her into being grateful for Blitzwing's intervention in everything. It had opened her eyes and she at last realized just how much of a witch she had been to her sister's lover. Although she still didn't really care much for him as a fellow sentient being, she was going to thank him for all that he did do for her.

"He…" Mandy started. "He made me see some things. I won't lie about that. He made me see how ignorant I am. I also want to thank you for volunteering to stay here with us."

"It vas of my own free vill," he said.

"Well, you know what I mean… I just want things to start off nicely between us. I'm willing to give you another chance because my sister does love you. Not only that, I have a feeling you will be looking out for Darien and I when we do officially join your side." Mandy shuddered at the thought of joining the Decepticons but she set it aside for the time being. "I suddenly see how lucky I am because I now realize it all could've been much worse…"

Blitzwing had a feeling that she wasn't doing it entirely out of her own free will. The triple changer was aware of the green and black bot's methods of intimidation and he could tell Lockdown employed them on Amanda. For the briefest second, he felt fiercely overprotective of her since he sensed that the bounty hunter must've frightened her out of her wits.

"Vhat did he do to jou?" he demanded.

"Nothing," said Mandy, "he talked to me and he made me realize…" She was puzzled by his defenses. "Are you actually concerned for me?"

"I don't trust him, it's a simple as zat."

"I don't trust Lockdown all that much either but I'm going to deal with him. From what he told me, he's going to be my car and whatnot…"

Blitzwing smirked.

"Vell, it's vonderful to hear jour apology!" Random said happily. "Jou did owe me after all!"

"Yeah…" the blonde rubbed the back of her head. "I figured that much."

"And since jou are Cyndi's sister, I can give jou anozher chance too. I accept jour apology!"

Somehow, she felt as if a great weight had been removed from her shoulders. Perhaps the fact that a Decepticon was acting rather leniently towards her made her feel so relieved and light. Amanda smiled at him which actually surprised her a little.

"Alright, thank you," she said. "I'm off to bed now so I guess I'll see you in the morning."

"Lockdown is still in ze voods?" Icy assumed.

"Yes, he is."

Without saying another word, she walked off to turn in for the evening. He watched her head off to her bedroom. Amanda didn't seem aware of the fact Blitzwing was watching her. Like Darien a half an hour before, she entered her room and gently closed the door behind her.

Once she closed the door behind her, the purple and beige bot turned his attention to Cynthia. His right arm was encircled around her body lovingly. Her head was resting on his chest. Cyndi was snoring softly and her mouth was slightly agape. Blitzwing stifled a chuckle when he saw a thin stream of drool trickling out of the corner of her mouth. She certainly wasn't the embodiment of Sleeping Beauty but he thought she looked cute in her own way.

"Cyndi," Random whispered into her ear, "vake up."

She groaned in protest. Cynthia snuggled closer to him, seeking more deep and peaceful rest in his arms. Mumbling something incoherent, she fell silent and then resumed snoring a few seconds later.

Blitzwing smiled a joker smile. His glossa wet his maw and he brought his mouth close to her ear.

"VAKE UP!" he shouted.

Cyndi's eyes shot open and she yelled just as loudly as he did. She grasped him tightly, trying to make sense of what was happening. There was a fevered, almost crazed look to her. Her head turned about furiously, trying to identify the source of the loud noise that roused her from her nap.

Blitzwing screeched in laughter, slapping a servo off his knee guard. His helm reared back and he simply savored the situation he had created.

"You slimy..!" she sputtered at him, realizing he was the ruckus that woke her up. "I'm gonna shove my fist down your throat!"

"Be careful, jou might never get it back," he said too sweetly. He nuzzled her. "I vanted to vake jou up for somezhing."

"It better be for a good reason or you will sleep in a dump for a week! I'm lucky my ear drums didn't rupture!"

"I planned on vaking jou up more gently but of course Random had to take zhings to an extreme…" Icy muttered. "I vanted to talk about jour sleeping arrangements. Jou can't sit up like zis and rest. Even zhough I am a guest, it is rude of me to push jou out of jour berth."

"I don't care. You can sleep in my bed until the month is up. The couch isn't like sleeping on a spike-studded rock so I'll manage."

"Zhen allow me to sleep on ze couch here."

"No, because you're too wide. Don't argue with me right now, Blitzwing."

"Jou are ze one who shouldn't be arguing. I told jou zat jou need to calm down. Jou need plenty of rest and so jou vill sleep in jour berth. No more arguing. I vill not fight over somezhing as asinine as zis."

"What about you?"

"I lie on a metal berth, Cynzhia. I can manage recharging on ze floor."

"But…"

He put a servo across her mouth to silence her. Then Blitzwing smiled. Random overtook Icy.

"I have an idea," he whispered to her. "Ve can share it togezher."

Cynthia raised her brow. She stared back at him in curiosity. Her mattress would fit two normal sized people ideally or solely him because of his stature. If she was going to be able to lie beside him, she wouldn't have much space. The sheer outlandishness of his suggestion made her gaze at him with an incredulous expression too. For lovers of her species, this was rather customary and she would've happily done the same thing if he was Human. But actually sleeping with him…

"No," she said bluntly. "I'm sleeping on the couch and you get the bed. I like the couch."

"Don't lie to me," Hothead glowered. "Jou eizher get ze bed to jourself or jou recharge vith me."

Her jaw dropped. Blitzwing didn't understand that she was thinking of a different connotation. Then it struck him suddenly. He shook his helm furiously.

"Not like zat!" he said.

"We can't fit in the bed, what don't you understand about that?" she said, sounding irritated.

"Like zis," said Random.

At long last, he drew away from her and stood up onto his feet. Before Cynthia could sigh in relief, he was holding her again. Blitzwing hoisted her up into his arms in a bridal style. Then he left the living room, carrying her to her bedroom.

Once he got to the room, he set her down on her feet. He walked over to her bed and then he lied down on it. The bed frame groaned and creaked beneath his weight but it was sturdy enough to support the downsized Decepticon. Blitzwing looked back at Cynthia. His left servo patted his abdomen.

"Come lie here," he beckoned. He reached back for her pillow and set it down on his chest. "I promise it'll be comfy."

Cynthia was simply sick of debating with him. She was tired of asserting her will. For the next day or two, she planned on allowing him to have whatever he wanted just so she wouldn't argue with him otherwise. The brunette couldn't quite put her finger on it but for some reason, she wanted to lie on him. His smile somehow appeared innocent in comparison to the mischievous air he always seemed to wield while the black and red face was in control.

As if she was under a spell placed on her by the fiendishly seductive Dracula himself, Cyndi approached him. With each step she took, sleep was tightening its grip on her. Her eyelids felt like heavy lead curtains and her brain felt like it wasn't functioning efficiently.

"Happy?" she sighed.

Once she made it to the side of the bed, she crawled up onto her living mattress. Cyndi lied on her stomach and rested her chin on the pillow. She was slightly surprised to see he was quite warm in contrast to the chill she expected. Lazily, she gazed into Blitzwing's optics, feeling peaceful and secure.

"See, isn't zis nice?" he said softly.

Cynthia didn't verbally reply. Her eyelids merely shut and she groaned in exhaustion. She turned her head to the side and let it rest on the pillow.

"Why are you so touchy feely?" she complained.

"Vould jou prefer it if I didn't kiss or embrace jou at all?" Hothead said almost spitefully.

He made a good solid point there. If he had actively avoided her and not touched her, she'd be a paranoid wreck. Cynthia would be wondering if she had done something horribly wrong somewhere to have him not at least have some physical contact with her. Not only that, she'd be keeping a close eye on him to see if his optics would wander. After all, he had fallen in love with an organic and there was a healthy chance it could repeat.

"No," she said quickly, "I'll shut up. Sorry."

"Not only zat," Random added, "I like touching jou. I von't get to enjoy it anymore vhen ze month ends..."

As soon as she fell quiet, his arms came around her once more. Cyndi didn't protest and she was mildly surprised to find herself relishing this. A content sigh escaped from her parted lips. His left servo ran up and down her back, silently informing her that she was safe with him. Once more, she forgot that an alien was massaging her and was under the illusion an organic man was doing this.

"Don't stop," she smiled, almost whispering.

"Tomorrow," she heard Icy speak, "I promise I vill give jou a nice massage tomorrow. Aren't jou tired?"

That accent of his reminded her of the truth for the umpteenth time. Now her reaction was mellower and not panicky. Cynthia was prepared for the wakeup call and she wasn't so uppity about it. Rather, she raised her head up and smiled at him.

Blitzwing looked back at her, seeing the weariness in her eyes. He smiled back at her and tenderly pushed her head down onto the pillow, encouraging her to sleep.

"Jou are," he said, "I can see it in jour eyes, Cynzhia. Rest."

"And you..?" she almost lowed.

"I'll be joining jou shortly… I don't zhink I told jou zis today and for zat I am ashamed vith myself."

"What..?"

His servo stroked the side of her head.

"I love jou."

(3:30am)

Tristan Cooley had ceased to exist for the time being. She could be conjured up at will but for now, she was only a ghost. Before the public and the expansive population of Earth, she was a young girl of sixteen with a severe distrust and dislike towards her fellow mankind. Little did anyone know that the teenager they saw on a daily basis was in all reality, an illusion. She never really truly existed. She wasn't even born on Earth nor was she even Human.

A small femme darted from behind abandoned buildings and dashed across desolate train yards, doing her best to avoid any detection whatsoever. Her light blue optics scanned her surrounding area to check for anyone or anything living be they Human or Cybertronian. She hustled over to a large bulldozer and placed her back against the construction vehicle. Although she did have five comrades in arms in Detroit, she preferred to work solely alone and thus minimize any encounters she may have with them. The four members of the other faction were naturally her inherent enemy and understandably, she didn't want to get caught by any of them at all. Primus forbid that she should be discovered and thus ruin her chances of proving to Ultra Magnus himself that she was worthy enough to work as an agent in the intelligence sector of the Elite Guard.

Once or twice a month, when Marishka was asleep, she'd roam around Detroit in the middle of the night to survey things and brush up on her infiltration skills. So far, she had only been seen by mentally ill homeless people and drunks who were not to be taken seriously: for that, she was certainly grateful. If she were to be seen by a Human or even worse, a Cybertronian with clear judgment, it would be all ruined. She was far too proud to join Prime and his crew in order to help them defend the Earth from Megatron. In all actuality, the young femme was far more interested in toppling Megatron and his goons rather than protecting the Earth.

However, this evening's exercises weren't particularly exceptional. Her thoughts had been focused on the organic boy who told her he was in love with her. His confession had rocked her down to her spark and had disturbed her greatly. She simply couldn't grasp how Darien Preston had fallen for her holoform. To her knowledge, he knew nothing of what she really was.

"Stupid boy," she muttered underneath her nonexistent breath. "I should've broken his wrist the other day. He didn't show up for the last day of school…"

"Pulsar!" Marishka's voice rang loudly and motherly into her comm.

Pulsar's optics flared angrily. Her servos clenched.

"Slag," she growled lowly.

"Young lady, I heard that," the Romanian diviner droned.

"Marishka, I'm in the middle of something. Can it wait until later?"

"You know how I feel about you running off into the city at three in the morning. You are going to get caught sooner or later."

"Well, that's a risk I'm willing to take. I do need to remain in good condition and not masquerade in a disguise constantly while I sit in the garage rusting. I hate using that Human body."

"Yes, but what if a Decepticon crosses paths with you?"

Pulsar scoffed bitterly. If she had come across a 'Con, her first and foremost instinct would be to eliminate them. Unfortunately for her, her size was quite small and she was considered ill equipped to deal with a foe much larger than her. Besides, she was aiming to be an intelligence agent, not some assassin or common soldier.

"I can escape if I need to," Pulsar answered calmly. "My vehicle mode is nice and maneuverable. Not only that, I do have stasis darts too. All I need to do is throw them at the 'Con and down he goes like a ton of rocks. When he comes around, he won't recall the past five Earth minutes that happened before he got knocked out."

She heard her organic foster mother sigh in disapproval. Growing impatient, Pulsar looked down at her orange armor. The young Autobot picked at the red seal that stood out on the front of her chest.

"It doesn't matter, Pulsar," said Marishka. "I still worry about you."

"Marishka, when the Decepticons are finally driven off the planet, I'll be trailing behind them," she reminded. "I'm not staying with you forever. Besides, you're not my mother even remotely. My real mother was killed by a raiding party consisting of Decepticons when I was a youngling. Like so many others of my kind, this is a personal war."

"Yes, I know all that. But I took you in when you arrived here on Earth by your lonesome… I've never had children and I do see you as one of my own. Forgive me but that is the truth. Now, please, come back home. You need to rest and not run about like this."

Pulsar rubbed her faceplate with a servo. She shook her helm heavily.

"Fine, you win," she said shortly. "I'm coming back now. See you then."

Before Marishka could say anymore, Pulsar disconnected her line with her. She transformed her vehicle mode and began to drive out of the empty lot.

"I barely remember anything about my real mother but for some reason, I have a feeling you'd be a lot like her, fortune teller," she murmured.

* * *

><p><strong>For Pulsar's vehicle mode, I decided that she is an orange Mini Cooper. So if anyone is interested in seeing what she exactly looks like, check it out on Google :)<strong>


	33. Things to Come

**Hey peeps, thanks for the reviews and the faves! :) So, the italic section is another flashback/dream that sheds some more light on Pulsar's background. It might seem a little cliched but I will make up for that in later chapters. There are three new OCs in the dream scene but they aren't significant and only serve to explain other character's back stories. Nebula, Proudgust and Sidewinder most likely won't show up anymore even in the italic sequences but may be mentioned in later chapters. Besides the italic section, there might be some Blitzwing OOC-ness but I can't really tell if that is the case or not... Please review and enjoy the update as always!**

Chapter 33 Things to Come

_"Mommy!"_

_The little orange youngling was shaking violently as she saw her femme creator lying face down on the ground. All over Nebula's chassis were deep slash marks that were carved into her down to her circuitry. The light pink, blue and white femme was bleeding energon everywhere and the Autobot was lying in a pool of her own precious life-blood. She had barely moved since the leader of the marauding group of Decepticons had landed a serious blow to Nebula, almost ripping her spark clean out of her chest._

_Nebula's young creation, Pulsar, could barely understand why this was all happening to her and her mother. Without any warning, a band of four Decepticons had razed their town and had killed all who had got into their way. They had murdered her father about a few stellar cycles ago after a bloody battle and now it looked like that her mother was next to pried from her. Her blue optics nervously flitted over to the hulking shadowy shapes that watched her mother die. Pulsar refused to look away from the winged bot who had ruthlessly attacked her mother after Nebula had killed one of the members of raiding party to protect her daughter._

_"Alas, all of it has turned out to be in vain," the abrasive voice of Nebula's mauler sounded amidst the crackling of the flames. _

_"Pulsar," Nebula whispered, "sweetspark, run..! Get away from them! Don't worry about me!" One of her optics was hanging out of her helm. Her optic cord was showing. "One of us has to live and it has to be you…"_

_"Aww, ain't that so sweet?"one of the other Decepticons said mockingly. "Here, I'll get ya running, little femme."_

_The owner of the voice, a dark green and silver seeker named Proudgust, began to walk over to the fractured, tiny family. Pulsar began to hyperventilate wildly as the boisterous, bull-headed flier approached her and her mother. Her pupils dilated hugely and she froze up like a deer in the headlights. She could see his wicked, fanged grin grow as Proudgust approached them._

_"Let ze little one go, Proudgust," another Decepticon, one of his commanders, ordered him. "Leave her to face fate alone but kill ze femme. She cannot be saved."_

_Proudgust halted. His evil grin faded and his rebellious fury was stirred up. He was sick of being ordered around by the blue faced bot who, in the larger seeker's mind, was ill-fit to be given a position of slight seniority over the common privates in the 'Con ranks. Rather, he saw himself as the superior one out of the two of them._

_He turned around and faced the young beige and purple seeker. The third surviving member of the band had his clawed energon-stained servo resting on his chin. He only quietly observed all that was going on, knowing that tensions were going to erupt between Proudgust and Blitzwing. It was only a matter of time._

_"I hear you loud and clear," said Proudgust, "but you cannot imagine the intensity of the frag I am not giving. I'm going to kill both of them. That Autobot wench killed Sidewinder!" He took a moment to reflect on the jittery but now deceased seeker he referred to. "He was my closest comrade after I joined Megatron and I want revenge!"_

_Blitzwing was not enthused with the other flier's disobedience. He glanced over at his brother as if seeking guidance or approval. Starscream merely nodded his helm._

_"You must stand up for yourself," he reminded him. "Megatron will understand why you've killed an underling of yours."_

_"Silence yourself, Starscream!" Proudgust lashed out. "This is between Blitzwing and I! I will teach that little worm once and for all that I am the most powerful-!"_

_Before he could rant any more, a blast of ice shot out at the boastful winged mech. The ice quickly encased him, rendering Proudgust completely immobile and helpless. His optics were the only things capable of movement and even his mouth was frozen in place when he was in mid-sentence._

_Pulsar forgot about her dying mother for a moment since she was completely taken by the fact her attacker had been frozen. Her little mouth hung agape as she stared at the spectacle before her._

_"Jou are relieved of jour duties, Proudgust," Blitzwing smirked. _

_Before she could further make sense of everything going on, Pulsar saw Blitzwing's servo punch through Proudgust's body. His servo smashed through his chassis and emerged out the other side of his body, obliterating his spark chamber and killing him instantly. The color on his chassis faded within his icy cocoon as his life force was extinguished. Blitzwing then withdrew his servo from his rival's spark chamber, opening and closing his fist._

_"Now, let's go," Starscream urged. "We destroyed this village and it's time to report back to Megatron."_

_Blitzwing ignored him for a moment and pushed Proudgust's still frozen body to the ground. When the lifeless seeker made contact with the earth, the ice shattered and so did his body. He lain in pieces on the ground, his essence forever lost to the Pit. _

_Then the young seeker focused his optics on Pulsar and her mother. The little Autobot visibly cringed when his ruby optics looked into her bright blue inorganic eyes. He approached the two._

_"No!" she pleaded. "Don't kill her!"_

_Blitzwing stopped when he made it to Nebula's side. His stabilizing servos tramped in the pool of energon and he knelt down next to the older femme. _

_Pulsar at last looked at her mother when he knelt down. A sharp gasp escaped from her mouth as if the wind had been knocked out of her. Nebula's colors had all but turned to a dull, ugly, smattering of different shades of grays just like Proudgust's corpse. The loss of energon and the grievous slashes inflicted upon her by Starscream's claws had ended her life. While the youngling had watched Blitzwing kill Proudgust, Nebula quietly expired._

_"Mommy..." Pulsar whimpered. _

_She extended a tiny hand out to her mother. The youngling placed it on Nebula's back. There was no reaction or any other sign of life originating from the sparkless corpse. Pulsar's lower lip trembled and her digits shook._

_"MOMMY!" she screamed. "MOMMY, NOOOO!"_

_Blitzwing stood back up. He austerely looked at Pulsar who was now curled up next to her femme creator, bemoaning her grisly demise. Although he felt no remorse for allowing Starscream to brutalize Nebula, he pitied the little Cybertronian. He had no problem ripping off older Autobot's helms off but he didn't see any merit nor did he have any desire to slay younglings and sparklings._

_"Let's move it!" Starscream raised his voice. _

_He transformed into his vehicle mode and flew off knowing Blitzwing would follow sooner or later. _

_Blitzwing turned his back on Pulsar and walked away from her, abandoning her to uncertainty. Then he paused and looked over his shoulder. _

_"If ve meet again vhen jou are older, I vill not be as merciful," he said._

_Pulsar didn't hear what he was saying since her screams drowned out his voice. She looked away from her mother's lifeless shell and stared at the large mech._

_"What?" she asked._

_He gave her no answer. Then he flew off, trailing behind Starscream. Pulsar's optics remained glue to him until the smoky sky swallowed him up and she lost sight of him._

(…)

Pulsar's optics shot open. She quickly scanned her surroundings to see if what she was seeing was reality or some kind of sick dream. According to what she could see, she was lying on the floor of Cooley residence's garage: her "bedroom". The orange Autobot was massively relieved by this discovery.

"Thank Primus it was just a nightmare…" she whispered.

She curled up on the concrete floor and forced herself back into recharge. She could hear birds outside chirping but she decided she wanted more rest. As long as she didn't have another nightmare about her wrecked childhood, she was content.

(apartment – 10:20am)

The aroma of bacon sizzling in a pan snaked up through Cynthia's nostrils almost tauntingly. When she got a whiff of this delicious smell, she woke up. To her mild surprise, she found herself lying in her bed and not on her living mattress. Her head was resting on the pillow and the covers were pulled up to her neck. Faintly, she could hear soft voices from the kitchen. Her bedroom door was opened to a tiny crack and she could barely see down the hall.

"Could you hand me the batter?"

"Yeah, hold on. Don't burn yourself, Sis. The last time you tried to cook bacon, you almost burned the complex."

"Shush up, I'm smarter now."

Cyndi sat up on the bed. She threw her legs over the side and stretched her body out. Then she stood up on her feet and shuffled across the white, carpeted floor.

When she pulled the door open and stepped out into hallway, she could hear the television. The smell of bacon was overpowering now but she could smell either pancakes or French toast being made as well. Cyndi lazily walked towards the kitchen as if she was sleepwalking. The sunlight that shone from the kitchen window struck her eyes, making her squint and grumble in displeasure.

"Hey, the dead walk the earth," Darien smiled upon seeing his eldest sister awake.

"She just slept in so long because she had a rough night," Amanda remarked, looking over her shoulder. "I'd be sleeping in too if I had to deal with someone as big as Blitzwing."

"Shut up," Cynthia retorted. "I slept like a baby if I woke up sleeping on my bed and not on…" Both her brother and her sister eyed her wryly. She glared at them. "Why do I even speak?"

"Looks like you're the one who needs to shut up."

"Where's Blitzwing?"

Darien motioned to the couch. Cyndi mentally face-palmed herself, not bothering to even glance over at the direction. However, he wasn't sitting on the couch. Instead, he was kneeling in front of the television with his face a mere inch away from the screen. Whatever he was watching certainly had captured his attention effectively.

"Blitzwing, what's on?" Cyndi called. She left the kitchen and walked over to his side. He still didn't look at her. "Earth to Blitzwing!"

She snapped her fingers over the section of his helm where his ears would've been. Still, she didn't get a reaction. When she looked at the dominant face, which was Icy, she could see this expression of sick awe and curiosity plastered on it.

"What is so fascinating?" she was becoming incensed by his inactivity.

To solve this riddle, she decided to watch what he was watching on the TV. When she diverted her attention to the screen, Cynthia was met with a scene that took place in a hospital room. She only needed to watch it for five seconds before she realized what was going on. A loud, healthy wail that came from the toothless mouth of an infant provided further confirmation for what she initially assumed him to be watching.

"Woah!" she said loudly. "No one needs to watch this at ten in the morning!"

Her jaw dropped and she turned the channel before she would end up getting sick herself. Cyndi looked at Blitzwing to see if there'd be some kind of reaction at last from him now that the disturbing stimulus had been removed.

"I had no idea Human birthing rituals could be so gruesome," he said hollowly. He finally spoke as if a spell had been broken. Blitzwing faced his love at last. "Is zis blackness real?"

"Yes…" Cynthia felt extremely awkward. "You said you knew a bit about Humans and yet you're shocked by this?"

"I heard about it but since I saw it on ze television, I am aghast. How is ze female race even in existence?"

"Human women have been doing this since the dawn of time. It's how every single one of us is born."

Blitzwing shook his helm rapidly. He looked genuinely perturbed and shaken.

"I pity jou so much right now," said Hothead. "Never in my life am I so glad zat I am not a Human femme."

"Yeah, me too," Cynthia said playfully. "Because you'd be one ugly girl."

He wore a displeased, heavy frown on his face when she said her latter sentence. For a moment, he looked at her, half-tempted to immobilize her with a headlock and ruffle her hair until it was a static-ridden mess. Instead, he grinned at her.

"Maybe jou're right," he admitted. "I zhink I'm perfectly handsome in zis body anyvay."

"I agree wholeheartedly," said Cynthia. "Now move away from the TV before you burn your eyes out."

She placed her hand on his chin and gave him a soft peck on his cheek.

"I couldn't stop looking!" said Random. "It vas so disgusting but fascinating! I pity ze organic femmes… Zat femme vas screaming so loudly too. She sounded like her whole body vas being ripped apart by a svarm of rabid scraplets! "

"Drop it or else you'll have nightmares," she said. "I don't need you screaming in my ear at two in the morning because you're dreaming about childbirth." Just the thought of it made her grimace.

"Oh, I can zhink of ozher zhings in no time!"

"Hey, breakfast is ready," Amanda called. "You better get in here and eat something, Cyndi. For some reason, I woke up today and felt like making French toast and bacon and that never happens."

"I vould eat somezhing too but jou don't have anyzhing I can eat…"

"Don't you dare eat my car again," Cynthia chided him.

"Don't vorry, I have no desire to do zat," Hothead grumbled. "I don't need to be screamed at."

"I'll buy you some scrap metal or a jug of oil later. Do you want me do that for you?"

"If jou love jour toaster very much, jou ought to do zat for me. Ever since I voke up zis morning, zat little contraption has been looking appetizing. Ze only reason vhy I haven't eaten it is because I know jou vould scream at me. I'm in no mood for zat…"

"Alright, I'll be sure to do that as soon as possible."

"…_we bring you this breaking news story that is currently in development at Sumdac Tower._"

Neither of them were paying much attention to the channel earlier. But when they heard the fragment of the news flash that was happening live ensnared their attention. The pair gazed at the screen in order to see just exactly was unfolding.

(Sumdac Tower)

Optimus studied the busted glass doors that served as the entrance to the industrial landmark. Shattered glass was sprawled all over the concrete landing. There were bullet holes embedded in the walls surrounding the building's lobby but thankfully, no one was hurt (only terrified by the randomness of the assault). The young Prime then looked over his shoulder and caught sight of the street. There were skid marks on the road showing that the marauders made a swift getaway as quickly as they showed up on the scene.

"I don't understand," Sari said softly as she looked at the sharp shards of glass. She was sitting on her faithful guardian's shoulder like a parrot. "Who did this? This doesn't look like Decepticons did this…"

"No, you're right," Bumblebee confirmed. "Fanzone said some guys dressed in black from head to toe rolled up in a couple of vans and started shooting at the building. I don't think Megatron would ask a couple of guys to do this when he could just have his attack dogs do it."

"There must be some method to this madness though," Prowl mulled. He studied the carnage around him. "I honestly don't think this is tied to the Decepticons because like Bumblebee even said, I don't see Megatron having organics do this. I think this is something independent of the 'Cons."

"Could it be thieves or crooks trying to steal some data or schematics from Sumdac's office?" Bulkhead offered.

"I don't think so, Bulkhead," Optimus said. He walked away from the entrance of the Tower and over to his band of bots who stood about fifty feet away. "According to what the police told us, they rolled up in their vehicles and shot into the building."

Sari's face soured when she thought up of a possible suspect.

"It might be that big meanie, Powell," she scowled. "Either that or that creep, Meltdown."

"It's a possibility," the Prime acknowledged, "but I don't think they're inclined to hire some goons and have them shoot up the front of the building. It's odd… I don't know what to think exactly. They fired for about twenty seconds and then they took off."

"It could be a distraction of some kind," said the ever thoughtful Prowl. "Maybe they fired at the Tower to attract us here with the intentions to unfurl something else into action."

The leader of the group understood where Prowl was coming from. He also couldn't really doubt or dismiss his suggestion either. Like his compatriots, he didn't believe this seemingly spontaneous attack was sponsored by Megatron in some way, shape or form. Sari's suspicions that her father's rivals might've been the cause of this weren't necessarily ruled out but were considered to be not of great suspicion unless solid evidence was uncovered that linked them to the scene. Optimus had begun to believe that perhaps a new enemy was the perpetrator of this incident. Who it was, he had no clue.

"Ratchet," he called the medic on his comm.

Ratchet had remained behind at the Autobot headquarters to safeguard it in the absence of his junior teammates. A few seconds of quiet went by after Optimus had called him. But then the old veteran's gravelly voice sounded on the other end of the line.

"Yeah, Prime?" he asked.

"I think we may have a new threat on our hands," the other half of the conversation reported.

"Ah, great. Just what we need: more trouble. We already have enough issues with keeping this rowdy city in line. Oh, and we're still fighting Megatron and his minions too."

"Yes, I'm sure we all feel the same way at this point. For the next few days, weeks or what have you, I think we ought to keep our optics peeled for black vans and any organics dressed in black textiles with ski masks covering their faces."

"Yup, that seems shady enough to grab our attention. What exactly did you find over there?"

"I'll summarize it for you as simply as I can: seemingly senseless destruction. I think this is a diversion of some kind. I wish I knew what it was exactly but I don't know. I'll explain more to you when we make it back to base."

(apartment)

"Bah!" Icy said disdainfully. "Autobots… Alvays zhere to save ze day. It makes me vant to zhrow up. Zhey suck up all ze limelight like ze parasites zat zhey are."

Cynthia ignored Blitzwing's little rant. Personally, she had nothing against them and she didn't really hate them in all honesty. The only reason why she tended to avert herself from them was because they had taken interest in her due to her several close calls with the Decepticons. Other than that, she bore no ill feelings toward them.

For the past two minutes, they had been watching the news channel, seeing the Autobots talking silently to one another in the background near the foot of the Tower. A reporter was standing in the foreground on the sidewalk a few hundred feet away from the band of protectors. From what the reporter said, men dressed in black from head to toe pulled up in front of the building and shot into it. So far, it all seemed to be a completely senseless act of violence.

"Do you think Megatron ordered the shooters to do this?" she asked Blitzwing.

"No, I vould've known about it if zat vas ze case," he replied. "Not only zat, I cannot picture Megatron hiring organic thugs to shoot into a building and zhen drive avay. He vould make me, Lugnut or Starscream do zat if he vanted it done. To be honest, I zhink it is a bunch of Human vandals who have nozhing better to do."

"The reporter said no clear reason for the attack has been identified yet…"

"I could care less. Let zem do vhat zhey vant." His cold expression softened ever so subtly. "But perhaps jou should remain here for a little vhile until ze heat blows over…"

"Admit it, you just don't want me to get shot or taken hostage." She poked his chin. "That's just your tough guy way of saying 'I don't want you get killed'."

Blitzwing rolled his optics.

"Hey, did you hear about what's going on?" someone spoke suddenly into Blitzwing's comm.

The triple changer sighed in annoyance and appropriately switched over to Hothead. Growling, he decided to reply to the caller.

"Vhat do jou vant?" he said. "I vas enjoying myself until jour voice spoke into my comm."

"I was in the back, minding my own business and perusing through the radio channels. Then I heard a broadcast that reported a bunch of Human bandits attacked a building downtown. Apparently, the Autobots are down there investigating things…"

"Yes, I know zat. I can see it on ze TV as ve speak."

"Oh, you sound a little brisk and busy. Am I interrupting anything of importance?"

"I vas alright before jou contacted me. Vhen I don't have to hear jour voice or see jou, I'm content. Now leave me alone."

"I've been curious about that nifty little device the short, fat Human made…"

"Vhy?"

"Well, look at yourself, Blitzwing. It has plenty of potential to use against the Autobots. You could sneak around the city with that size. No one would even suspect it. I might even swipe it sometime and try it out. Or do I have to hold your servo with these safeguarding duties?"

"Don't challenge me, scum! I have full control of ze situation!"

"Cynthia," Amanda tapped her foot on the floor, "come eat breakfast before our brother eats it all! Turn off the TV!"

Cynthia shut the television off after her stomach began to growl and churn. She left Blitzwing's side and walked into the kitchen. The woman took a seat next to Darien who was dousing his French toast with nearly half a bottle of maple syrup. Her eyebrows furrowed when she saw him lather his food with the sappy fluid, disbelieving he was actually using so much.

"Do you plan on sharing some with me?" she asked.

"I can't help it," Darien replied shortly.

"You're going to be bouncing off the walls because of all that sugar that's in there…"

"I could afford a sugar rush." At last, he set the bottle of syrup down on the kitchen table. "At least I leave some for everyone else."

"How goes it in there?" Lockdown asked.

"Vell enough vhere jou don't have to come in," Hothead glowered. "Did jou scare Amanda enough to have her apologize to me?"

The bounty hunter laughed on the other line of the comm link. Blitzwing stood up and walked out of the living room. He hovered in the hallway so he wouldn't disturb his hosts' breakfast with his conversation. Right now, he wished he could speak to Lockdown face to face but he didn't dare to leave the apartment in broad daylight. Theoretically, he could do that if he used his holoform but he was in no mood to don that disguise since he already was the size of a large Human.

"I take zat as a yes," Blitzwing resumed.

"Pretty much," said Lockdown. "You can thank me for that."

"I zhought so. Don't zhreaten her because zat's my job. All jou have to vorry about is keeping an eye on zem to make sure zhey don't bolt."

"Apparently, that's my job description as well for this assignment. Also, Megatron was the one who originally intended for me to do this. You're a tag along as far as I know. The only reason why you're there is because you think I'm going to take advantage of or hurt your organic plaything."

"Slaggit, she's not some playzhing! If she vas just some organic I kept around for some fun, she'd be doing vhatever it took to escape me."

"You love her enough to be considered as a candidate?"

"For spark's sake, Lockdown, it's only been five Earth months," Icy moaned tiredly. "It's too early to tell even for Human standards. Yes, I do love her." He looked over his shoulder to check to see if anyone was watching. Blitzwing didn't trust this and hustled into Cynthia's room. Gently, he closed the door behind him and he sat on her bed. "But it's too early as I've said. She vill probably live for sixty more stellar cycles and zhen die. It could easily take members of our species a zhousand stellar cycles to even consider one as zheir sparkmate. Zhere's no vay she can live a zhousand years."

"Then why are you doing this to yourself?"

"Jou fool, I am in love!"

"To be honest, I think you're wasting your time with her. Before you know it, she'll be a crusty old femme and you'd still be young according to our species. In the blink of an optic, she'll go back to the dust from where she came."

Blitzwing had never really thought of that before. He obviously knew of their physical differences but he never actually thought about longevity issues. Lockdown's words fluttered around in his processor and it genuinely disturbed him because he knew the bot was speaking the truth. She would be eighty before he could even ask her to become his sparkmate. Not only that, because they were of a different species, he wouldn't even be able to merge sparks with her as Cybertronian bonding rituals dictated.

"Are you there?" Lockdown prodded, noticing the uneasy silence on Blitzwing's end.

"Yes, I'm here," he said softly. "Jou don't need to remind me of ze vast differences between us. Neizher do jou need to remind her of zem as vell. I zhink she might be having ze same problems I am vith coming to accept zhese zhings."

"Save yourself the trouble of having your spark broken by suggesting to her that you go your own separate ways. That seems to be the most reasonable thing to me. You could still remain friends with her though."

Now the triple changer was getting angry.

"How dare jou say zat!" Hothead snapped. "I vill do no such zhing! Jou saw the slag beat out of me by Megatron! I begged him to spare her and look, she's alive! My pleas meant nozhing to him but at least I got to keep her! I vill remain vith her as long as I am in love vith her! Even if she's an old crone, I'll still be vith her."

"You're only sentencing yourself to a life of misery," said the other Cybertronian. "You couldn't bond with her even if you did decide to make that rash choice."

"I can't do zat to her," Random said mournfully. "I love her, Lockdown! It vould break her little organic heart… I can't let her go. I don't vant to be just her friend. I vant to be her sveetspark."

"You are a lost cause. You're letting her get close to your spark. That's not a good thing because she's organic."

"Since vhen do jou care?" Hothead bellowed, not caring if anyone could hear. "Vhen do jou care about my life?"

"I'm trying to be the sole voice of reason. I'm trying to figure out what you see in her. The longer I think of you two being together, the more perplexed I become."

"Like I said, vhen did jou suddenly care? Jou stay outside vhere jou belong and I'll stay here! Goodbye!"

Before Lockdown could say anymore, Blitzwing cut the link and blocked him from trying to contact him again. For a moment, he half expected to hear Cynthia come into the room since he raised his voice. He was relieved he didn't hear anyone approach and enter.

"I love her and she loves me," Random reasoned. "I don't vant to leave her. I vill stay vith her until she dies…" There was no large grin to be displayed. "I vill live longer zhan her too. Lockdown's telling ze truth."

"I don't vant to zhink about it at all," Hothead said miserably. "But it is going to happen."

Icy couldn't say anything. All he did was contemplate within his helm.

(later that evening – 10:30pm)

Her blue-gray eyes silently observed the figure that sat on the couch in a slouched posture. For the past hour, he barely moved. Earlier, he had been so curious of everything around him but now he appeared to be unnaturally morose. This unsettled Cynthia a bit considering none of his personalities were normally so gloomy. She had noticed this sudden change in all three of his personas almost immediately after he emerged from her room after he talked to Lockdown.

Blitzwing had been lounging on the couch, lazily browsing through the channels for the past two hours. Amanda and Darien had retreated to their rooms for the evening and Cynthia was the only one out and about. For a moment, the scenario hauntingly reminded her of yesterday's incident where she burst into tears after yelling at everyone. She was hesitant to approach him or speak to him for fear of him lashing out. If he was in a bad mood, Cyndi wanted none of it directed to her. But she also didn't want to be heartless and not try to figure out what was wrong with him.

She approached the couch and placed a hand on the top of his helm. He didn't seem to react to her touch. The bot continued to sullenly press the 'up' button on the remote control to look for some show that would catch his attention.

"Blitzwing," she said, "are you alright? You've been acting a little off since Lockdown contacted you."

"I'm fine," he answered without turning around to look at her.

"Do you want the other bottle of oil I bought earlier today?"

"No zhank jou."

"Do you want to talk?"

"Jou know vhat vould really be nice?" said Random.

"What?"

He turned his helm to the side and locked gazes with her. A tiny grin was on his face.

"I vould love it if jou sat vith me," he said.

"No problem," the woman smiled warmly.

Cyndi walked around the couch. She took a seat right next to him and scooted closer. Her head rested on his chest and placed her right arm across his abdomen.

"Ah, jou get comfy quick, don't jou?" he sniggered. Once more, his arms came around Cynthia and he pinned her against him. "I don't mind zat at all."

"Is everything alright?" Cyndi questioned. "You seem awfully depressed. I know this isn't like you at all."

"It's nozhing," Hothead revealed. "Don't stress jourself over it."

"Does it deal with Megatron or..?"

"Hey."

"What? I'm trying to talk to you here."

"Don't vorry about me. I don't like it vhen jou vorry about me too much. Ze last zhing I need jou to be is vorried sick about me… I'm fine." He formulated a lie almost professionaly. "My chassis still aches from vhat Megatron did to me."

"But it seems like something's bugging you. You seemed alright until you were done talking to Lockdown."

Blitzwing was still thinking about the conversation he had with the bounty hunter in the morning. It still pestered and tormented him to think about the truth in Lockdown's words. He knew he was right. She was going to be dead before he knew it. He'd still be young in Cybertronian standards even thousands of years after Cynthia's death. Time would drag on as it always did and undoubtedly the Human race would become extinct before he'd even be considered middle-aged. He'd still have many years to live (granted he wouldn't be killed) before his spark would ultimately cease to pulsate and then flicker out like a candle. Millions of years would keep them apart from one another until he had finally expired.

There was no way he felt like discussing this with Cynthia. Making her upset or leading her to believe their love was doomed and wrong was not on his list of things to do. Instead, he was going to shut up and not mention anything about their longevities. As far as Blitzwing knew, he was going to remain with her for as long as he was in love with her or until she had broken his spark or betrayed him in some preferably unforeseen or thought of scenario.

"Lockdown gets on my nerves and jou know zat," he stated. "He pesters me and I'm still achy. Zat's vhy jou've noticed I seemed off. It's nozhing to vorry about, Cyndi. If anyone should be vorried between ze two of us, it's me. And I should be ze one vorried about jou."

"You think I can't take care of myself?" Cyndi scoffed. "I'm not pathetic."

"I never said jou vere pazhetic," Icy raised a digit. "I'm just saying zat a gentlebot ought to be sure of his femme's safety. It's only appropriate. He vould obviously not be deserving of her if he regarded her so negligently."

"So, you promote yourself as my perfect love interest?"

Blitzwing smirked. He held his helm up highly and proudly as if he was an alpha male.

"Of course," he chuckled. "Don't jou dare call me obnoxiously arrogant eizher. Starscream has me beaten in zat department. In reality, I'm one of ze humbler Decepticons."

"Oh, I know," Cynthia yawned. "I'm not saying anything. So, everything's alright?"

"Yes, I'm alright. I'm happy to see jou are concerned for me but jou needn't vorry."

"I'm concerned for you because I love you."

"I know…"

Internally, Cyndi sighed. She saw another similarity between him and a Human man. Those comforting smiles and sweet words were very often a disguise one way or another, especially when he looked so downtrodden before she spoke to him. Of course the man was going to try his hardest to convince his love that everything was alright when in reality, things weren't necessarily all about rainbows and sunshine. The male was going to do what he could to lessen any and all emotional baggage from his companion's mind and lull her into the illusion all was well. Behind her back, he was going to be Atlas.

"It's nothing," she thought to herself. "At least, it better be a petty matter. I absolutely refuse to stay on the sidelines."

While he kissed her brunette crown, she closed her eyes.


	34. Hades and Persephone

**Thanks for the reviews/faves/alert! Sorry for the late update... Anyway, in this chapter, it's pretty much uneventful other than the fact there's some Amanda and Lockdown chemistry going on and I won't be surprised if no one even bothers to review or like this chapter. Please enjoy the update.**

Chapter 34 Hades and Persephone

(June 10th – 3:30pm : Cole's Groceries)

Although Janine Claymore was more of a fashion connoisseur than an automobile enthusiast, she knew a stunning (or rather odd-looking) vehicle when she saw one. When she saw her coworker and friend drive to work with a new, outlandish yet sharp car a few days earlier, she was completely fascinated by it. The spikes and the red headlights were a big turnoff for her but the brunette couldn't help but to not admire it one way or another. What made her especially curious of this new car was its very appearance: surely Amanda wouldn't buy an intimidating looking vehicle. Janine had known her long enough to know that the other young woman preferred cute, petite, lightly colored vehicles like a pink Volkswagen. To see her ride up in Marilyn Manson's dream car was a shock to say the least.

The twenty year old girl pushed her lime green bangs out of her eyes so she could continue studying the muscle car in the parking lot. It had been a rather slow day at work since it opened up at nine o'clock so she was certain she wouldn't be chided by her elderly manager, Mrs. Cole, for goofing off. Janine looked at the car, just wondering what compelled Amanda to buy such a thing. She was fully aware of her story which explained how the muscle car came into her possession. Somehow the tale that Mandy acquired it from an auto depot didn't really convince her. Why did she have to buy such a boyish, rocker car?

"Ring me out, honey," Amanda said suddenly, shaking Janine out of her little trance.

"You scared me half to death, baby!" the elder female exclaimed, her brown eyes widened. "Give me a holler first."

"Quit looking at my car." She smirked. "He's mine. If you want him that badly, you should've gone to the depot before I did."

"'He'? Is that car one of those alien robot things?"

"Pssh, no. Trust me, you'd know if it was one of those things."

"Then why did you call it a 'he'?"

"Look at it, Janine."

"Hmm." Chuckling, Janine began to scan her friend's groceries. "What will you call that fine gentleman then?"

"He doesn't need a name. Sometimes I call him 'It'."

"How fitting."

Amanda looked out through the large front windows that lined the front of the grocery store. She caught sight of Lockdown sitting in the exact same spot where she left him hours earlier. In all honesty, she was surprised but even more so relieved he didn't try to pester her while working. While she was ringing out customers' merchandise, she almost predicted him to waltz up to her in his holoform and embarrass her one way or another. So far, that didn't happen and she was extremely grateful for that. It would be so awkward and sickening for her to tell Janine that this man was her date.

"So, how's Darien and Cynthia doing?" Janine asked.

"Peachy, what more can I say really?" Mandy replied. "We're alive and that's the most important thing."

"Dear, you need to cut back on the goodies. Why are you buying so much ice cream?" She held up a gallon of vanilla ice cream to Amanda's face. "You're not packing it on so where's it all going?"

"Darien eats like a horse. Cyndi's been having cravings for ice cream lately. That's where it's all going."

That was a lie. In reality, Blitzwing, particularly Random, like playing and experimenting with it. Two days ago, when it was a particularly hot day, he insisted on making everyone milkshakes. He threw some ice cream into a blender and turned it on without putting the top on. Needless to say, he slept on the living room floor that night after Cynthia forced him to clean up the mess he had created.

After Janine was finished with ringing up and bagging her coworker's items, Amanda handed the money over. The blonde grabbed her bags and leant up against the counter.

"So, there's been a change of plans," she informed Janine. "My nineteenth birthday party's not going to be at my place."

"Why not?" the other girl wondered. "I don't think your place is at that small."

"Well, Cyndi's foreign boyfriend is staying with us…"

"Oh my God, you never told me she's taken! Good for her. And he's foreign? Where's he from?"

"I don't know, Germany."

"Really? I'd love to meet him sometime!"

"Heh, yeah, we'll see how that goes… Alright, I'm leaving. I'm going home and chilling out. Don't lose your sanity tonight."

"I'll try not to. Have a good rest of the day, honey."

Mandy walked away from Janine's register. With her eyes glued to her guardian, she advanced towards the sliding glass doors. Her first instinct was to fish her keys out of her purse but then she remembered she didn't need keys for her particular ride. As calmly and casually as possible she continued on toward her vehicle.

"Unlock the door," she whispered so no one would hear.

He didn't reply but she could hear a loud click. The girl opened up the driver's door. She sat down in the seat and placed the groceries in the front passenger seat. Then she closed the door.

"I think your friend's got the hots for me," Lockdown noted. "She was looking out the window all day at me. Maybe we should give her a ride."

"Nope, not ever," she said. "She was just trying to figure out why I have you as my car. She thinks you're hideous."

"Right back at her."

"Take me home, please. It's been a day. I barely got any sleep last night."

"You drive me."

"No, unless if you want me to smash you up."

"Fine. But next time, you will drive… You never did say why you were so tired."

"Ugh, why do you think I was up for so long?"

"I'm not sure considering I stay out in the woods. I get left out so much."

He backed out of the parking spot as if a Human was driving the vehicle. Normally, Lockdown could care less since he saw himself as an untamable and free spirit but his duties restrained him for the time being. Megatron himself ordered him to safeguard his potential future agents and that included keeping them under wraps. If he should try anything drastic or reckless, he'd have to face the wrath of a very displeased Decepticon.

"Well, take a guess," the blonde massaged her brow ridge. "I'll give you a hint: he has three faces."

"Blitzwing," he deduced. "What was he doing that kept you up?"

"He was laughing like a crazed serial killer clown because he managed to hack into Cynthia's computer last night and he was watching YouTube videos at four in the morning. I was the one who had to wrench it from him and tell him to go to bed. Cynthia was dead to the world. I don't have any idea how she can sleep through that obnoxious laughter of his. I was ready to plant my foot up his butt."

"Should've known. But at least he's amused by simple things."

"Pumpkin Head is. The other two, eh, not so much. He's getting stir crazy too. He's been cooped up in the apartment for the past five days and he's ready to bust the door down and get outside. Supposedly, Cyndi said she was going to go out with him tonight so everyone can get some fresh air."

"He'll be out of your hair at least. That ought to be a relief for you."

Amanda nodded in accordance. She leaned back in the driver's seat. When she did that, the seatbelt suddenly came to life and restrained her into the seat. For a moment, she was startled but she settled down.

"I'm not fighting back," she said.

"Good, it shows that you're learning," said the bounty hunter. "There is hope for you."

Still, she couldn't come to grasp with the way things had turned out over the past few days. The fact that she was to serve Megatron was something she grudgingly but fully accepted. But at the back of her mind, Amanda hoped that somehow, the Autobots would be able to save them from being enslaved to the Decepticons. Her first and most natural action would be to seek the five righteous bots' help but she knew that she would be promptly slain for such a thing. So, the only thing she could do was hope and pray she wouldn't actually be deployed against her own species.

(9:00pm)

"Come on, let's go!" Hothead was trying his hardest to not punch a hole through the wall. He simply couldn't stand being pent up in the apartment for another minute. "Cyndi, vhat's taking so long? Ve're just going out into ze voods!"

She emerged from the bathroom before Blitzwing could bust the door down out of impatience. He looked at her from head to toe to see what the holdup was with getting dressed. Then his arms folded across his chest.

"Jou took so long to put zis on?" he glowered.

"What is wrong with what I have on?" she placed her hands on her hips. "Don't tell me how to dress!"

Cynthia wore a pair of light blue capris. On her feet, there were yellow flip-flops. To cover her torso, she wore a plain, crisp white t-shirt. There wasn't really anything special or spectacular about her outfit she had chosen for the evening.

"Vith how long jou vere taking, I zhought jou vere dressing up for some fancy dinner!" Blitzwing vented.

"Girls take longer to get ready!" she growled.

"Alright, vhatever. Let's get going! I'm sick of staying in zis tiny living space!"

The couple entered the living room. Darien was sitting on the couch watching TV as usual. Amanda was right next to him, leaning heavily against him on his shoulder.

"Okay, we're leaving," Cynthia told them. "Be good and we'll be back before it gets too late."

"God, this is so awkward," Amanda laughed. "You know why? Because you're acting like a mom as usual and you're going out with him… I'm going to leave it at that. Have fun, Mom and Dad."

"If jou vere my daughter, I'd discipline jour aft," Hothead remarked.

"Whatever," Cyndi shook her head. "Lockdown's in the back as usual so don't get any ideas."

"I don't even like going out anymore because of him," said Darien. "You don't have to worry about me running off. We'll keep the door unlocked, Cyndi."

Cynthia ran her fingers through Darien's brown hair.

"Thanks," she said.

Getting fed up with waiting and anxious to stretch his wing struts out, Blitzwing grasped her hand and led her to the door. He released her a few seconds later when they stopped at the foot of it. Cyndi went ahead of him to make sure the coast was clear. She opened up the door and stuck her head out of the apartment. Looking to the left, to the right and then panning out to the general surroundings, Cyndi scanned for anyone who might catch sight of him.

As far as she could tell, there wasn't a soul to be seen. All was quiet and calm. For once, Cynthia was happy that the majority of the people who lived in the complex were either old or party goers who only came back home to sleep off a night's worth of alcohol, carnality and drugs.

"Alright, scoot," she whispered to him.

"Oh, happily!" he snapped.

Blitzwing pushed past her, stepping out of the apartment for the first time in five days. He was actually happy to step out into the world.

Cynthia gently shut the door behind her. She took a step closer to him as he stood in the middle of the corridor, looking out at the city in the distance.

"I never zhought it'd feel so good to get out of zat place," Icy sighed. "No offense but it vas tiny."

"It was all I could afford when I first came here," she explained. "I definitely plan on getting a house of my own someday. I'd go insane if I had to live in that apartment with those two for the rest of my life." She felt terribly exposed out in the open with him like this. "Let's get to the woods and then we can go off. I'm getting paranoid standing here with you in public. I won't be able to offer any explanations as to why a seven foot tall Decepticon is walking next to me."

"Vhy didn't jou say so?" said Random. "Let's go!"

He grabbed her hand again and bolted, nearly ripping her arm out of her socket. Blitzwing ran to the concrete stairwell and ran down it without a care in the world. Cynthia had tripped a few times but his grip on her prevented her from falling to the bottom of the stairs with a few broken bones and a nice little concussion.

"Jou know, ve've been doing vell vith hiding," he said to her as he hopped over the last four steps. "I zhink I like zis too. Ze Humans don't know a zhing! Ve're much too clever, aren't ve?"

"We're not hidden well enough until we get into the woods," she heaved heavily. Running with him even as he held her hand was much harder than she originally believed. "Let's jog, not run."

"Come on, I'll race jou." He let go of her. "I'll give jou a headstart."

"If that'll get your big butt moving, I accept the challenge."

Without waiting for a commencement of any sort, she dashed to the woods a few hundred feet away. Blitzwing smirked, not expecting this.

"Jou cheater!" he cackled. He ran after her. "I didn't say 'go'!"

She laughed as he chased her. Cyndi looked over her shoulder, seeing him advancing rather rapidly. To keep ahead of him, she pushed herself harder. Unfortunately for her, Blitzwing was too quick.

She was only twenty feet away from the edge of the tree line before he caught up. Before she could face him, he swept her off her feet and held her in his arms. He gave her a brief yet sweet kiss on her cheek and walked the final twenty feet to the privacy of the trees.

"Even vhen jou try to cheat, jou can't beat me," he taunted her.

"Hey, I'm not the athletic type," she said. "You can tell. I'm about as fit as a saucer of jello."

"Ahaha! It jiggles! Just like zis!"

He smacked her rump. Cynthia cringed at the slap. She ground her teeth and fought back the sharp nip. Her first reaction was to slap him right back but she was in no mood to end up with a few broken fingers.

"Really?" Cyndi hissed. "Was that necessary at all?"

"Maybe…" Blitzwing said sheepishly. "So, vhere are ve off to?"

"Uh…"

Cynthia observed her surroundings. She was on the lookout for the red glow of Lockdown's optics. Since they were in the wooded lot behind the apartment complex, she knew the muscle car was undoubtedly close. The thought and possible reality he could be watching them made her feel uncomfortable. She was the most accepting Human regarding his presence but he still unnerved her. As far as she could tell, he was nowhere to be seen but that didn't mean he was gone. For a single moment, she didn't cease to believe he was there.

"Let's just fly off," she said. "I don't like standing out here like this."

Blitzwing knew that she didn't want to remain in the area long because Lockdown was in close proximity to them. He wasn't intimidated by him unlike Cynthia but he didn't want the evening ruined by her nervousness.

"Don't vorry about him," Hothead said sternly. "Are jou going to let him ruin ze night? I von't allow him to do zat. Jou shouldn't be scared of him eizher. He zhinks he can frighten jou because I've downsized. I'll remind him who really is in charge vhen time's up."

"Jou never did say vhere jou vanted to go," Icy chimed in. "So, ve'll do zhis."

He activated the thrusters in the bottom of his stabilizing servos. Just before he began to fly up into the air, his grip on Cyndi tightened to prevent her from slipping out. The woman dug her fingers into him in vain so that she could try to remain in his hold. Blitzwing ascended into the air for a few hundred feet before he hovered.

Her feelings of wariness and anxiety had all but been dispelled as she hovered up in the air as he held her. Replacing those negative sensations was joy and wonder. This was pleasantly different in comparison to being placed in the cockpit. She could feel a cool but pleasant breeze ruffle her hair as they remained motionless in the air together. Cyndi felt so relaxed and for a moment, she thought she had turned into a bird.

A happy laugh came from her mouth. The Human didn't feel such childlike excitement in her for such a long time. She had a much better view of the lit up city now that she was in the air and it looked so peaceful and beautiful. Vaguely, Detroit reminded her of the Emerald City from '_The Wizard of Oz_'.

Cynthia heard him laugh softly in her ear. She turned her head to the side to look Blitzwing in the optic. Her hands rested atop his servos that were clasped around her waist.

"This feels so amazing!" she beamed. "I feel like a kid at the top of a roller coaster! This is so cool hanging up in the air like this! I feel like Superman!" Then she gulped and lost some her enthusiasm. "Don't you dare drop me."

"Never," he replied bluntly. "I vould never do zat. I zhought jou knew me better."

"Just saying, that's all…"

"I say ve fly around and see vhat zhere is. Vhat do jou zhink of zat?"

"The Autobots…"

"Are unimportant. I'm smaller now so zhey von't be able to detect me as vell. Trust me and everyzhing vill be alright."

"Yes, vhere is jour sense of adventure?" Hothead pressed.

Cyndi shook her head.

"Never mind my nonsense," she said. "Let's just go." Some of her glee that was killed off earlier had been reborn. "Let's go before the night gets too old."

"Ve can take as long as ve vant," he announced. "Jou have no obligations. My only obligation is to make sure jou don't become a turncoat. But I don't see zat happening…"

(9:15pm)

She was restless and bored.

If your name was Amanda Anne Preston, you could do one of two things: complain or find someone to talk to. Sometimes, that other end of the conversation didn't really want to be bothered by her but that didn't convince her to appreciate the other's desire for solace. As long as her immediate needs were satiated, she was content.

The blonde glanced over at the other occupant who sat on the couch with her. Darien was watching TV, not really paying much attention or even minding all that was around him. She had no desire to talk to him because he was her brother and she had been forced to put up with him for the seventeen years he had been alive. At times, she just couldn't stand him or Cynthia for that matter (although she generally tolerated her sister more than him).

"I'm bored, I'm going outside," she said blandly.

"Why don't we chill out together?" Darien suggested. "I'll even watch your favorite movie, '_Titanic_', if I have to."

"No, I'm not in the mood for a movie. I'm in the mood for talk."

"Then we'll talk."

"Sorry, little bro, but not with you."

Alarmingly enough, Amanda found herself drawn and curious of her guardian. For the past five days that she had been exposed to him and wary of his existence, she became increasingly interested in this hooked mechanical man. When she had first crossed paths with him in February, she had put off the whole experience since she was fairly confident she'd never see him again. To her grave misfortune, they had met again four months later. Neither of them had forgotten about the other.

Now she began to somewhat understand why Cynthia had lied about seeing Blitzwing. Meeting and conversing with an alien really was fascinating. Earlier, she was repulsed and repelled by such a practice and now she started feeling hypocritical regarding the things she told Cynthia months earlier. Something about being in his presence was invigorating. Her adrenaline flowed through her body and she felt good yet nervous. She was intimidated by him but she couldn't keep herself away from Lockdown simultaneously. It was so odd and she couldn't even comprehend why she was feeling this way.

"So, you're going to talk to him?" Darien concluded, wearing a dour frown. "I thought you hated him."

"I have nothing else to do," she said. "What can I do? Talking with you gets boring after awhile."

"Maybe I want to talk to you."

"I want to talk to Lockdown. Besides, I might as well maintain some kind of relationship with him considering he's my ride to work."

"Yeah, have fun. First Cyndi, now you. Before I know it, I'll have to move out of the apartment if Lockdown decides to shrink like Blitzwing and join us. And if I have to deal with you smooching him, I will lose my mind."

"Oh, please. What Cyndi does is just plain disgusting. I don't know how she even gets a good night's rest." She shuddered. "Geez, it's like sleeping with your washing machine!"

"Maybe you should get out before I tell Cyndi you're saying all this stuff behind her back."

"She knows what I think about that great big clown. Blitzwing's lost all hope for me. We're not fighting anymore anyway so whatever."

"Okay then." He ground his jaw. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Fine, you big baby, join me."

"Sorry, I like Blitzwing more than him. If I had to choose between Lockdown staring at me and Blitzwing giving me a noogy, I'd go with the latter. Even though he'd probably scalp me in the process…"

"I'd go with Lockdown. I like my hair, thank you very much. Have fun with your imaginary friends."

She surrendered her seat and walked over to the door, leaving her brother alone to speak to no one.

(…)

"Uh, hello!"

Amanda huffed. With her hands on her hips, she traipsed through the wooded lot where her peculiar babysitter lurked. The evening was stagnant due to the fact that no wind blew but it wasn't oppressively stifling. She listened for any telltale noises that hinted to Lockdown's movement amongst the late spring foliage.

"Come on, give it up," she called out.

She half expected him to leap out of a tree and land only feet away from her. To her surprise, she managed to find him without even replying to her. All it took to find him was to walk deeper into the woods and look for a subtle red glow that stood out amongst the blackness.

"There you are."

Mandy approached him. She stepped over a fallen log, making sure she wouldn't make a fool of herself by tripping. The last thing she needed was to have him brand her a klutz alongside a shallow, whiny, bottomless garbage can.

The bounty hunter was leaning casually against a tree with his optics turned up to the canopy above him. Seconds earlier, he was observing the stars before she stumbled across him. Even though the thick, leafy canopy obscured his view of the clear, cloudless night sky, Lockdown managed to gaze at the heavens above through the little breaks in the leaves. While he was looking through those cracks in the canopies, his processor wandered off. The green and black mech barely even acknowledged his charge's presence.

"Hello!" she snapped her fingers.

Lockdown actually wanted to enjoy a moment of solitary peace and gaze at the stars. But he didn't really feel like having her causing a ruckus to gain his attention. Sullenly, he faced her.

"What?" he asked. "Why aren't you inside?"

"Because I'm bored," Amanda replied, tapping her foot on the ground. "Darien can be about as interesting as a piece of wood sometimes. Cyndi and Blitzwing flew the coop and… here I am."

"I find this hilariously ironic, you know that?"

"I'm aware of that. But I'm not really deterred by you anymore. I guess you can say I'm used to you breathing down my neck."

"It's about time, that's all I can say. You'd have to accept the reality sooner or later anyway, Blondie."

Amanda sat down on the ground, pulling her legs close to her body. She wrapped her arms around them and rested her chin on her forearm. Her eyes gazed at him in a bored fashion. The blonde Preston sibling still wasn't entirely sure how to strike up a conversation with a Cybertronian, albeit one who closely worked alongside the Decepticons even though he wasn't officially one. She was still very much his prisoner as he was her jailer.

"What's it like being a giant, alien robot?" she asked innocently.

He furrowed his brow plates. Lockdown wasn't expecting a question like this.

"Better than being an organic, that's all I can say," he replied shortly.

"I guessed that much," said Mandy. "I heard your kind lives a long time… How old are you exactly?"

"Much older than I want to admit, put it that way. I'm much older than you can possibly grasp. I'm still young according to my species too."

"So you're like, forever young?" She frowned heavily. "I'm jealous!"

"You have the longevity of a germ, kid. You're alive one minute and then the next minute, you're back to the dust from where you came."

"Thanks for making me feel good about being born into the Human race, jerk." Mandy's attitude was turning sour now. "I came out here to talk to kill the boredom, not make me depressed and make me want to slit my wrists. I'm already trying to deal with how to save myself and serve that evil Decepticon leader."

"The days are starting to dwindle away. Do you have an idea of what to do?"

She shook her head heavily. Her lower lip quivered slightly and she felt like crying.

"No," she admitted, "I'm lost. I didn't want this to happen to me! I didn't deserve this! I know you heard that rant before and so did everyone else but… It's just not fair! I'd love to be able to talk to my parents…"

"Sorry to break it to you but I do monitor all your calls," Lockdown revealed. "Blitzwing does too. That's because Megatron doesn't want you to leak any information about the location of his base or tell anyone your sister fell in love with the freak."

If she became so despondent and melancholy about the whole ordeal, Mandy believed that suicide might possibly be the next best option as opposed to betraying her species. However, she craved life. She lusted for it and all the things it dished out. It was simply not in her disposition to take her own life. She was much too happy and bubbly as a person to even consider it. There was no desire in her heart to even help the Decepticons in any way. Despite the fact she could be selfish and shallow, Amanda didn't want any Humans' blood on her hands should she serve Megatron. Neither did she see it in Cynthia or Darien.

"I…" she exhaled. "I don't know what to do. I can't run off to tell the Autobots or police because of you and Blitzwing. I'll admit it: I would do it in a heartbeat. It makes me so angry that I'm absolutely powerless to do a thing to save myself and my family!"

Lockdown said nothing. He didn't really feel any pity or sympathy for her misfortune nor could he really relate to her. Any warmhearted creature's immediate response would be to comfort her and try to lift her heart up with optimism and hope. Instead, he offered none.

"You are powerless," he nodded. "There is nothing you can do. Sadly for you, you belong to the 'Cons now. At this point, all I can say is that you have to do what you must to survive. I know you want to live to see another day so you ought to do what is needed to persevere."

"Yes, that includes hurting innocent members of my own species!" the tears emerged again. "I can't do that! I'm not a cold-blooded killer!"

"Your sister isn't the killer-type either but she seems to be accepting the reality easier than you."

"Cynthia is so warped!" She threw her arms up in frustration. "And Darien… he wouldn't hurt a fly!"

"Make the most of it."

"Yeah, I might as well." She scoffed at his impersonal words. "You're about as useful as a can of tuna when it comes down to talking. Now wonder why you're a bounty hunter with absolutely no friends."

"Friends slow me down for you information. I'm a lone wolf. I see greater benefits working alone than having someone impeding in my line of duty."

Amanda was becoming exasperated and her despair was growing with each second she remained in the conversation with him. As long as she communed with him, she felt as if she had greater motivation to take her own life due to his emotionless and hollow statements. Lockdown was much too crude and dismal for her peppiness. Even Blitzwing wasn't this demeaning and so heavy on her emotions.

Wiping away some tears, she stood up. She ran her hands across eyes and rested her right hand on her temple.

"I'm wasting my time talking to you," she spat.

"Oh, what would prefer me to say?" Lockdown sneered. "You want me to say everything's alright and be buddy-buddy to you. Sorry, kiddo, I'm being honest. It is what it is. You'll only be sorely disillusioned if I sugarcoat it for you. Blitzwing isn't going to let you cry on his shoulder either, so don't even think about trying to whine to him. He's already got his servos full with Cyndi. Man up, Blondie. Your life is at stake. Do something about it. Life ain't all about good things. There will be huge disappointments in your life and this situation that you're in is one of them."

"Why do you care?"

"I'm just saying it like it is. You need to develop a thicker hide. Take what's coming to you and prepare for it. If you do that, you can find a way to make it enjoyable."

She raised a brow. Contrary to what her body wanted to do, her mind urged her to remain where she stood. Amanda sat back down on the soft earth.

"And how do you think I can do that?" she inquired.

Lockdown grinned. He clicked his glossa.

"Get creative," he replied. "What makes you happy? How do you think you can make your servitude to Megatron beneficial?"

(the peninsula – 11:30pm)

Cynthia yelped when she tripped over a rock in the darkness. Her right hand came up over her heart and she took a few heavy breaths since she was spooked by her foiled fall. Luckily, she managed to regain her balance before she could land face first into the dirt. She gritted her teeth and growled in frustration.

"Alright, this has gone on far enough!" she said loudly. "I'm sick of these games! Get your big butt out of the shadows or I'm walking back home!"

She fell silent to listen for a stifled chortle or some rustling emerging from the woods around her. To her great misfortune, all was quiet around her. She could hear the hoot of an owl or the soft droning of crickets. A few fireflies lit up around her every seven seconds or so, looking like tiny, floating candles in the dark woodlands.

For the past twenty minutes, she had been playing 'Hide and Seek' with Blitzwing reluctantly. Random of course was the one who came up with the idea when he declared that stargazing was much too boring. Without her even agreeing to his offer, he bolted off into the surroundings so that she could find him. Cynthia was in no mood to be reduced to a six year old but she saw she'd have to play his game in order to make him stop. So far, she had no luck finding him and she was wary of wandering around more for fear of bumping into unwitting campers who might end up spotting Blitzwing.

"Come out!" the woman said with rising fury. "I'm serious when I say I'm going to walk home!" She smiled smugly. "Better yet, I'll get one of the Autobots to drive me home. And then I'll give them a kiss for doing such a nice thing for me."

If that didn't work to coax him out into the open, then nothing would. Well, she actually had one more trick up her sleeve. Cynthia looked over her shoulder and scanned all around her briefly to look for the crimson glow of his optics. When she saw he wasn't visibly present, she decided to taunt him more.

"I'll just assume you don't want me anymore," she went on. "I'll go be with a man who really wants me, like Wes. I have to admit he is a handsome charmer in comparison to the little insect he was in middle school. He's big, strong, brave, gentlemanly and funny. As far as I know, he's got a crush on me too. So why not?" Cyndi chuckled in her throat. "Going once… Going twice…"

"Sold!" a sudden, mechanical-sounding voice shouted.

She flinched from the intensity of Blitzwing's voice but he was nowhere to be seen. Rapidly, she spun around in order to find him but it was a fruitless effort.

At last, he made his location known to her when she felt two big hands slip underneath her armpits and hoist her up into a tree above her. Cyndi squealed in surprise when he did this and tried to squirm out of his grasp. Within a few seconds, she was face-to-face with Hothead.

"Jou vouldn't dare," he remarked. "If jou vould abandon me for him, I'd kill him to make jou mine!"

"Did you not hear the sarcasm in my voice?" she folded her arms across her chest. "I said all those things so you'd blow your cover because I don't want to play 'Hide and Seek' anymore."

"Not only zat," said Random, "zhere is no ozher mech or organic man zat is as big, strong, brave, gentlemanly and funny as I! Jou'd be out of luck, Cyndi! And jou're a trickster, jou know zat?"

"It took jou long enough eizher vay," Icy smirked.

"Wait, we're in a tree, right?" Cyndi asked.

"Yes, vhat else vould I be standing on?"

"How is it supporting our weight?"

A loud snap sliced through the air. The thick branch beneath them began to give way to their combined weight.

"It looks like jou need to cut back on ze goodies," Random joked. "And maybe I need to stop drinking so much oil!"

Before the branch beneath them could snap and send the couple plummeting to the ground below, Blitzwing hopped out of the tree. He maintained a strong yet cautious grip on Cynthia, being vigilant of her safety and comfort. With a thud, he landed on his stabilizing servos, leaving both of them intact and secure.

"Nice," she nodded her head. "I'm alive. Now can we please go back to stargazing and relaxing?"

"I see zat jou've settled over ze past few days," Icy observed. He set her down on her feet. He looped his arm around hers and they walked side by side. "It's certainly good to see zat."

"I guess so, yeah… I'm calmer but I'm still worried as you can imagine."

"Rightly so. Now zat jou have calmed down, jou have to zhink of how jou can serve Megatron."

"Blitzwing, I don't know…"

He stopped walking. Cynthia stopped a second after he did.

"Jou have to," he sounded harsh. "If jou don't, jou vill die."

"I know," she waved her hand dismissively. "Frankly, the only thing I can think of is target practice."

"Zat's unacceptable, at least to me. Jou do realize zat jou have to sit down vith Amanda and Darien to discuss ze situation in depth?"

"They're as equally clueless as I am. Look at me! I'm not some world renowned scientist who could offer their services to Megatron like that poor man in the mine! I don't have any talents he could possibly use! I'm just… I'm just me. I think I'm doomed already."

"Oh, I don't zhink so," Hothead said steadfastly. "Jou're not dying as long as I'm online. Ve are allowed to stay togezher and ve are going to remain togezher."

"Jour brozher and sister vill be alright too," Random said happily. "It'll be okay, Cyndi." He placed a digit beneath her chin. "Turn zat frown upside down. I don't like it vhen I see jou sad or scared. Everyzhing's gonna be okay. All jou have to do is trust me."

Cynthia embraced him.

"You have greater confidence in me than I do in myself," she whispered.

"Be brave!" Hothead urged. "Jou stood up to me months earlier! Jou can't afford to be a coward at zis point. Not only zat, I got jour back."

For the umpteenth time, Cynthia questioned herself inwardly. Was she extremely lucky or miserably cursed to have fallen in love with him?


	35. Balancing the Humors

**Hey guys, much thanks for the reviews/faves/alerts! You rock :) I planned on uploading this on Thursday evening but I'm going away for a few days and I don't know if I'm going to have an internet connection with where I'm going to... So, this is getting updated earlier than planned! Okay, so a little about this chapter... This chapter is super long but hopefully it won't disappoint. There is also a character being introduced into the story from the Prime continuity. I somewhat played with his characterization in this story and I loosely based him off of Clint Eastwood's characters in the movies 'The Good, the Bad, the Ugly' and 'Unforgiven' because I always thought he'd look awesome with that badass loner cowboy mentality and to say the least, his canon self is a complete douche. I think it'll be fairly obvious as to who it is... There's also some intimacy, fair warning. Please review and enjoy as always!**

Chapter 35 Balancing the Humors

(June 21st – 1:00pm, the park)

The man was sitting casually on the wooden bench. His legs were crossed and his right arm was resting along the back of the bench. There was a soft smile on his leathery, aging face as he listened to the sound of pigeons cooing with Zen-like patience. The way the warm, golden sunlight massaged his lightly balding head felt so good on his scalp. He felt so comfortable that he didn't feel like moving at all nor surrendering or sharing his seat with the older park patrons who needed to be wary of their old frames. He could be viewed as old by some, but not that aged. He appeared to be in his mid-fifties.

He opened up his gray eyes, revealing a stony, rigid and austere hint to them. When he pulled his eyelids up, the affable smile steadily dissolved away. He removed one arm from the back length of the bench and rested both of his hands on his thighs.

The man focused his attention on the form of a small child who was frolicking happily with her companion in a grassy "play area" of the park. The time he devoted towards the red haired girl was short lived and quickly directed it to her odd, yellow friend. For a moment, he disbelieved how they went about like this in the public eye but he reminded himself that their presence (pertaining to the kind the girl's friend belonged to) was generally accepted in the city. As long as he wore the badge of red, there'd be no issues.

Then he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pant pocket. He promptly took it out and flipped it open.

"Talk to me, Anders," he said in a jagged, gruff voice.

"S-Sir," the young man, Anders, spoke. "Are you still at the park?"

"Yes, I am. I'm looking at one of those things right now. You know Professor Sumdac?"

"Of course…"

"Yup, well, his daughter is having a blast with one of them."

"Okay. No offense, but that's not a huge surprise, sir. We and practically everyone who knows the kid is aware of the fact she's always being babysat by them."

The man retreated from his seat on the bench. Slowly, he walked down the cobblestone path and ceased to observe Sari and Bumblebee. He held the cell phone closer to his face.

"I want one of the big bucks," he said softly.

"Pardon, sir?" Anders questioned carefully.

"Forget the small fry. If we want real results, we have to think big. We want to get the attention of the big boys. The attack I ordered on Sumdac Tower earlier was a flop. We did get the attention of the Autobots but now I've been thinking that they're not sufficient enough."

"Sir..?" Anders swallowed hard when he saw what his boss was hinting to. "Are you suggesting that we target the Decepticons?"

"Yes, you idiot, what else could I possibly be hinting too?"

"Sir, are we equipped to seize one of them? They're bigger and stronger than our originally intended targets. It takes three, four, or maybe all five of them to take down just one of the big ones."

"We'll find out just how capable we are if we decide to nab one. Besides, I don't think the three foot soldiers are all that bright. As far as I'm concerned, they're a trio of dumb, stubborn, old bulls. I'll tell you this right now, Anders; I forbid any efforts to try to take down the head 'Con. He's not to be touched because I don't want to risk dancing with that wily devil. He's not the leader for absolutely no reason."

"Al-alright, sir."

"Relay the news to the others. Forget the Autobots. Tell them to focus on any of the three drones." He kicked away a child's ball that rolled onto his path. He ignored the little boy's cries and continued on. "When I get what I want from them, I can be hailed as the man who singlehandedly eliminated the Decepticon presence from this lovely planet. After they're out of the picture, the wimpy pests are next."

(apartment)

"Hello-oh!"

"Hello, is this the Preston residence?"

"Vhy, yes, zis is. Who am I talking to?"

"This is Susan."

"Susan… Zat's a very lovely name."

"Thank you, sir."

"Tell me, Susan, vhat are jou vearing?"

Blitzwing was doing his best to hold back an explosive torrent of laughter. He loved it when telemarketers called the apartment. To him, they were so easy to mess with. Getting female telemarketers was an especial treat since he relished making them uncomfortable and hitting on them.

"Uh, that's a little inappropriate, sir," Susan said shakily. "Is Cynthia Preston there? I'm calling to offer her a free month long trial for…"

"She's not here right now," Random drawled. "Zis is her…" He paused to choose the correct terminology. After all, he did want to maintain the illusion that she was talking to a Human. "Boyfriend. And jou didn't tell me vhat jou vere vearing…"

"Can you tell her that I called…" Susan stalled. "Actually, I'll call back another time when she's around."

"No, don't hang up yet! I'm so lonely! Jou know, jou sound like a very beautiful voman…"

"Goodbye, sir!"

"Vait! I have one more question: do jou have a big, bold and sassy butt?"

A second later, he heard a dial tone, signaling that the crept out telemarketer hung up on him. Blitzwing laughed heartily at the whole scenario, pleased that it had been so awkward and uncomfortable for the woman. He hoped she'd remain on the phone for a little while longer just so he could harass her some more. It was a win-win situation in his optics: he would have something to do to pass the boredom of remaining incarcerated in the apartment and Cyndi wouldn't have to deal with telemarketers anymore.

"Anozher one bites ze dust, Cyndi!" he called, hanging up the phone at last.

"You're a real smoother operator, you know that?" she said, rolling her eyes. Sometimes, she couldn't help but to feel a little insecure especially when he talked to female telemarketers. "Your next girlfriend's name is going to be Susan, isn't it?"

Blitzwing giggled and exited the living room. He snuck up behind Cynthia who was washing dishes in the sink. She remained unaware of his encroachment since she was involved with the task before her. His arms wrapped around her waist and pinned her against his body.

"What?" she asked, dropping a plate into the soapy water.

"Zhere von't be a femme named Susan if jou play jour cards right," he said.

"You are so arrogant when it comes down to love, you know that? You really think you can get a Human woman to fall in love with you? As far as I know, I'm the only crazy one who can do that." She tilted her head upwards, her face literally a few inches away from his. "I'd like to see you try it and have her return it to you. If I see that happen, I'll believe that Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are real."

"All I have to do is zis." He set a sweet, brief peck on her lips.

"Like I did the first time, the girl would scream at the top of her lungs in bloody murder. Good luck, Casanova."

"Not so fast, Queen Elizabeth…"

Cynthia laughed at his statement.

"Queen Elizabeth?" she repeated. "How do you know about her?"

"History Channel," said Icy. "All I do in zis apartment is vatch TV, jou know."

"Well, I'm sorry it's boring but you kind of dragged yourself into it."

"I vas vell avare of vhat kind of stagnancies I vas going to presented vith. However, it's a petty sacrifice I can make for jou. On ze bright side, all zhose hours of television taught me a great deal about jour kind."

"I don't know if that's a good or bad thing."

"Zhen just ignore vhat I said."

It was somewhat of a nervous hassle to deal with earlier but now Cynthia wasn't daunted by sheltering him in her home. She had to admit she felt safer with him residing alongside her and her siblings. To her, it was a lot more pleasant to have Blitzwing amongst them rather than Lockdown watching their every movement from the woods. At least he was familiar to her and her siblings and his presence wasn't foreboding and unnerving like the bounty hunter's.

For the past two weeks that he had been living with the family, things were interesting. In contrast to what would be normally expected from a Decepticon residing in an organic dwelling, the atmosphere somehow seemed lighter and more exciting. Then again, this was Blitzwing in the mix of things. Cynthia had to admit she was going to hate when the month would be up and he'd regain his true height. Everyone would revert back to boredom and customary business.

Darien had nearly forgotten about Tristan and the heartache she bestowed onto him. Cyndi was especially pleased with how well the triple changer and her brother had gotten along. She also noticed how he had become like a big brother towards the youngest sibling. There was very little, if any, hostility between the two of them and they got along very well. Often times, she caught them watching TV peacefully together.

When it came down to Amanda, it was a mixed bag. Blitzwing told Cynthia that Amanda had apologized to him and she genuinely was caught off guard by that. Despite her apologies, Mandy tended to avoid him and she commonly seemed uncomfortable with him. In fact, she removed herself from the apartment and spent a lot of her time in the lot with Lockdown. She wished her sister and her love would get along better but things were a lot less tense than what they were like when he spent the first day with them. For a moment, she thought Amanda was going to jump onto him and stab him with a steak knife in vain.

Somehow, Cynthia felt as if she had strengthened her bond with him over the days. After he adjusted to his new living conditions rather quickly and reminded himself frequently that trashing the apartment was a forbidden activity, Blitzwing had calmed down. Very often, she found herself by his side. Earlier, she was annoyed by his touchiness but now she was the affectionate one. Luckily for her, he hadn't lost his receptiveness towards her. To her, the fortified feelings of passion and love she felt for him came about with the predicament that allowed them to embrace and kiss one another without much restraint.

"Do you mind?" Cynthia asked but with a friendly tone.

"Oh, I must be interrupting jour vork," said Hothead. He loosened his hold on her. "Vhat's so important about cleaning zhese plates?"

"Because I refuse to live in filth. Obviously, it doesn't matter to you and I can tell because you live in a mine. I don't want to eat on greasy, dirty plates."

He rolled his optics beneath his visor. Then he grinned. Without saying much more, he exited the kitchen so he could indulge in some television to pass the time.

With a tiny smile on her face, Cynthia pulled a piece of hair out of her eyes. A moment later, she resumed the dishwashing. As she continued the cleaning a soft, drawn out sigh escaped from her lips. Not too long after that exhale, she began to hum an unknown tune that she made up herself.

(downtown)

Amanda sullenly sipped on her iced mocha latte. While her coworkers and friends, Janine Claymore, Allie Daugherty and Diana Springsteen, giggled and rambled on and on about mundane and typical feminine things, she sat quietly with them outside the coffee shop. Normally, she'd be the dominating and most chatty force amongst the little group but today she was rather withdrawn. She barely even paid attention to what her three friends were talking about.

She swirled around the caffeine-loaded slop inside the plastic cup. Her pale green eyes were studying the beverage inside the cup but at the same time, she wasn't even looking at it. More than anything else, she was preoccupied with the plethora of emotions that were warring within her at that moment. What her friends were talking about were the least of her innermost concerns.

Stealthily, she glanced over her shoulder. The eyes scanned the parking lot that sat on the edge of the shopping center. Somewhere amidst that sea of steel and glass was her special car. Mandy couldn't even remember where she exactly parked him but she didn't care at the moment. As long as he was out of sight and he allowed her some breathing space, things were going to be alright. At the back of her mind, she begged and prayed that Lockdown wouldn't activate his holoform and join them. Amazingly, he hadn't done that at all since the first day of her guardianship but she still was wary of his actions and his wily ways.

She should've been happy considering she was amongst friends. She was supposed to be enjoying some shopping and quality time with them. They were going to be flirting with boys, eating ice cream, maybe stop and listen to a man who played a _prim_ on the street corner and just savoring each other's company. No, that wasn't the case for Amanda…

As each day went by, she felt like she was becoming closer and closer to her execution date. She knew she at least had two more weeks to go before she'd be brought forward to Megatron but the nineteen year old couldn't help to not feel feverish and tense about it. Still, she was at a loss as to how she could prove herself to the Decepticon lord to save her own skin. The last few nights had been practically sleepless for her since she had been so busy pondering over what to do. Nightmares had held her captive whenever she did fall asleep and with each nasty dream that occurred, she felt like she was coming undone.

While her mind raced during the early morning hours in order to find a solution to Megatron's ultimatum, her thoughts would occasionally turn to the reading she had been given from the Romanian psychic a few months earlier. The mental imagery of becoming pregnant and blossoming into a young mother further frazzled her increasingly fractured mind. So far, she hadn't been raped which she believed would've led to her conceiving and for that she was extremely grateful. However, she still wondered as to how it would come about.

Desperately, she wanted to turn to Helen and Robert Preston, her mother and father, for guidance. She wanted to cry on their shoulders and be reduced to a one year old so she could have her binky once more. It tore her apart to see that they couldn't know about the horrible predicament their three children were in. Amanda felt alienated and desperate. The secret suicidal thoughts still hovered around at the back of her mind but she promised herself she wouldn't take her own life until Megatron was poised to seize it from her.

To make matters worse, Amanda felt some other disturbing, shadowy sensation creep into her heart. For the past few days, it had been steadily developing within her and with each moment that she spent with Lockdown, the stronger and more prevalent it became.

"Hon, what's going on?" Diana placed a hand on Amanda's shoulder. "Talk to us. You seem so unlike yourself."

"Yeah, everyday you seem like you're getting more miserable," Janine added. "I don't like seeing you like this."

She didn't dare to tell her girlfriends the truth.

"It's my period," Mandy lied. "I'm just having a really bad cycle this month."

"You just turned nineteen a few days ago," said Allie. "We're young and pretty. Life should be great for you!"

"I know, I'm just feeling really…blah." More than anything else, she felt like crying. "If you guys don't mind, I think I'm going to head back home. I don't want to be such a downer and just sit here like a storm cloud."

"You're hiding something from us, admit it!" Janine said fiercely. "What is it? Tell us now!"

"This is absolutely ridiculous. There's nothing to hide!"

"You didn't want to celebrate your birthday party at your apartment because your sister's boyfriend is staying there for a little while," said Diana. "If you say that he's alright, why move out of there?"

"What's it to you?" Amanda was feeling uncharacteristically hostile to her own friends.

"Geez, maybe you should go home," Allie suggested as she ground her jaw. "Eat some ice cream and watch a movie."

"Thank you, Allie, I'll do that right now!"She felt tortured in being so curt to them. "Girls, I'm sorry… I need to go home and lie down for awhile. I've been getting headaches and feeling nauseous."

"Oh my God, don't tell me you're pregnant!" Janine exclaimed.

That was the last straw.

Mandy abandoned her beverage and briskly rose out of her seat. Without saying any parting words to them, she walked out of the square and towards the parking lot.

"Stupid Gypsy," Amanda cursed beneath her breath.

Before she knew it, she was in the parking lot. She misjudged just how quickly she was walking away to distance herself from her friends. In her normal state of mind, she wouldn't even dare to speak so coldly to them. Currently, she could care less. All she knew was that she was running on so little time. Just thinking about the day of reckoning made her want to puke on the asphalt.

After a minute or two of walking, she located Lockdown who was still faithfully parked in his space. She placed her hand on the car door and it unlocked for her. Without a moment to spare, she opened it up and placed her rump on the driver's seat. Her hands came over her face to hide the tears from him. She sniffled.

"What's wrong?" he asked. He did sound a little caught off guard by this overwhelmingly negative miasma that hovered around her.

"Please drive me home," she wept through her hands. "I want to go straight home! Don't ask any questions, Lockdown… Please, just do it."

He stalled for a moment. However he realized that it was best to listen to her to avoid a possible scene.

"Calm down and at least put your hands on the wheel to make it look like you're driving," the bounty hunter said.

"I can't!" Mandy debated.

"I know you're crying. That's fine. Just do as I say."

With great effort, she pulled her hands away from her face. Amanda revealed her moist, reddened face and her bloodshot eyes. She wiped away some snot that was trickling down from her nose. After drying her hand on her pant leg, she set her hands on the steering wheel as he instructed.

After she did that, Lockdown began to move. When he began to drive away, she felt like she could breathe a little better. Her utmost concern was distancing herself from her friends just in case if they decided to follow her and scratch more answers out of the rough.

"So, what's going on?" Lockdown said after a few minutes of silence.

"You know darn well what's going on," she retorted. "I'm slowly heading to an emotional meltdown with each day that goes by!"

"Well, why are you doing this to yourself? You keep prolonging this and then you come outside to see me every single night and complain to me how you're at this dilemma. You really are confusing me with these mannerisms. Blondie, I'm almost certain you're a masochist."

"Oh, shut up!" She slammed the palms of her hands against the steering wheel. "I'm acting this stupidly because I don't want to think about it! I am not a masochist because I am trying to avoid it! I am a Human; my species wants nothing but good things! What's going on with me is not a happy thing! We Earthlings like to put off bad things for as long as we can and it's as simple as that… But you'd never understand that."

Contrary to what she thought, he did fully understand.

(twenty minutes later – 2:35pm, apartment)

Although Amanda had made plans to remain sedentary for the rest of the day in her bedroom, such plans were set ablaze as soon as she entered her home. When she started to walk past the kitchen, she was quickly but silently intercepted by her sister. Cynthia grasped her by her hand and led her into the kitchen. Judging by the huge, sly grin on Cynthia's face, the young woman could only imagine what was happening.

"Lose the frown right now," Cynthia whispered. "We're going to do something that's going to make the day so much better."

"Did we think of ways to save our skins?" said Amanda. "And why are we whispering like this?" She glanced over her shoulder, spotting Blitzwing who was seated in his usual seat on the couch. "Are you excluding him from our little conversation?"

Cyndi put a finger up to her mouth, gesturing her to keep quiet. The playful grin didn't disappear from the eldest female's face.

"He's taking a little nap on the couch," she said. "When I saw him snoozing there, an idea suddenly struck me."

"Are we going to prank him?" A tiny smile shone on Mandy's face. She was crying twenty minutes earlier but now she felt a little better.

"Absolutely. Why not liven things up a little bit? The joke will be on him this time. Besides, I've always been secretly curious about something that deals with him." Her smile grew. "You know the visor he wears?"

"How could you not miss that thing?"

"I want to see what his eyes look like beneath it."

Amanda shook her head. She couldn't believe that her normally calm, non-assertive sister would even suggest something like this. To her, it was a death sentence.

"Are you okay?" Amanda put a hand on her sister's forehead. "What is up with you?"

"I'm making the most of things for as long as he's living with us," Cynthia answered simply. "I'm alright. For the past few days, I've been in a good mood too. Why not pull his leg?"

"He's not going to punch my head off my shoulders, is he? Is he going to strangle you?"

"He wouldn't dare. He knows that if he kills you, I kill him. We'll take it off, see what his eyes look like, joke about it and give it back to him. Sweet and painless."

"Is Darien in on this too? Where is that boy?"

Cyndi frowned slightly but not much of her positivity was subtracted.

"He's been in his room all day," she said. "If he wants to be alone, I won't bother him. If he needs some solitude to clear his thoughts and figure out what to do with Megatron, I'll let him have his privacy. But no, he's not in on this with us."

Amanda already found herself relishing seeing Blitzwing overreact to having his mysterious visor removed. Some good old payback for the times when he shamed and made her a joke was about due. She could really use the laughter too in order to soothe and possibly piece together her fracturing psyche.

"Then, I'm in on this with you," the blonde said confidently. "I want to see him cry."

"I knew you couldn't resist," Cyndi's smile grew.

On her tiptoes, she exited the kitchen. When she was standing behind the couch, she waved her hand to beckon Amanda to follow.

"Here goes nothing," Amanda muttered under her breath.

With silence to match her sister's approach, she left the kitchen. Her feet transitioned from the cold tile floor to the soft and warmer, carpeted living room. Her eyes were glued to Blitzwing's unmoving form. She really did hope he was asleep and not only faking it and waiting for them to spring into action so he could promptly foil it. Being punched by him wasn't on her list of things to do before she'd die.

"Let me do it," Cynthia instructed. "I'll take the full brunt of his fury. I know you don't want him mad at you."

"Preferably, yes," Mandy smirked. "I'm not ready to die right now."

The oldest sister walked around the couch. She was being careful to not make a noise even a mouse would be capable of making. The respect she showed him earlier regarding the visor was still there but now it was evolving into active curiosity.

When she got around to the other side of the couch, she could see Blitzwing's front. He was leaning back into the couch, relaxing in it. His servos were folded across his abdomen. His whole posture was serene and lax as if he was completely comfortable and trusting of his surroundings. Hothead was the dominant persona and his helm was tilted upwards ever so slightly. He looked so stupidly unaware and foolish in Cynthia's eyes.

With a sly smile, she inched closer to him and raised her hands. She really wished he was asleep and he wasn't tricking her. If he suddenly grabbed her hand when her fingers were only millimeters from his face, she'd scream at the top of her lungs.

Her fingers were so close to him that she could feel some heat radiate off of him. They began to tremble a bit in nervous yet excited anticipation. She didn't even dare to breathe at this point since she was right in front of him.

Taking a chance and finally killing the buildup, Cynthia grasped the visor. Thankfully, there was some space in between his face and the visor and she was able to slip her fingers in. Her hands pulled away and she removed the concealing object.

Now that there was no visor, she could see his optics. It was bittersweet because he was still napping but she couldn't see what his optics really looked like since they were closed. Cynthia shrugged and hustled over to a shocked Amanda.

"I can't believe you actually did it!" the blonde whispered. "We're going to die!"

"I can't wait to see the look on his face when he sees he doesn't have it on," Cynthia stifled a spray of laughter. "It's so worth it though! Look at this!"

She held the visor up to her face. The sisters chuckled like a duo of school girls.

"You look like Bono!" Amanda placed her hand over her mouth to keep the noise in check. "Oh, I have to get a camera and take a picture of this!"

"I'll be back," Cynthia imitated the best Terminator voice she could muster. "Hasta la vista, baby!"

"We should hide it from him and play stupid."

"No, I don't need him tearing the apartment up again. Quick, go get the camera like you said. We'll take a few pictures and then put it back on him before he flips out…" Her big smile somehow expanded. "Forget it, I have a better idea. I want to see his eyes and the shock in them."

"Are you sure he's not going to kill us?"

"He wouldn't dare."

"I sure hope you're right."

"I am."

Cynthia handed Amanda the visor who took it with great curiosity and glee. She then placed a hand on top of Blitzwing's helm. Her hand ran across the top of it and she moved her face in closer to his metal cranium. Her mouth was right by where his audio receptors were located.

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty," she said calmly.

He growled, displeased he was roused from his nap. Cynthia heard the couch creak beneath him as he stirred and then settled back down.

"Vhat?" he sounded crabby and irked that his rest had been disturbed.

"I want you to get up," Cyndi answered.

"Vhat for? A bot can recharge for a little vhile, right?"

"Are your eyes opened?"

"Now zhey're open because jou von't stop talking…"

Before he his irritation and impatience could build up, he abruptly halted speaking. As soon as he opened his optics, he could see everything in color. With his visor on, everything was tinted red but it ranged from various shades. For a moment, Blitzwing sat in shock, trying to process what exactly was going on. His servos came up to his face and he felt the area where his visor would be. To his surprise, it wasn't there.

He quickly spun around, staring directly at Cynthia and Amanda who stood behind him. His optics narrowed, knowing exactly why his visor was missing. When he saw it in Amanda's hands, he growled and bore his teeth. Blitzwing's servos curled up into tight fists.

The sisters finally got to see what his optics looked liked. They were half expecting to see a bizarre or embarrassing pair of optics which would likely prompt this persona to don the visor to begin with. There wasn't even a grisly scar. To their disappointment and slashed suspense, his optics were rather normal looking.

Hothead's optics bore somewhat of a resemblance of Icy's normal optic except they were opened wider instead of the austere persona's sneering glance. This pair of mechanical eyes even had pupils like Icy. In fact, the red face's eyes reminded the sisters that they looked a lot like Starscream's.

"Jou two did zis!" he fumed. "No one's allowed to touch it!"

"It was Cyndi's idea," Amanda quickly shoved the visor into Cyndi's hands. "I just watched it all."

"You traitor," the brunette bit back.

Blitzwing made a grab for the visor. Cynthia quickly jumped back, reacting just in time. She smiled defiantly at him.

"Give it back now, Cynzhia!" he snarled.

"Or what?" she teased.

"I'll put a dent in jour skull!"

"I'm not afraid of you." She lifted the visor up to her face once more with intentions to make fun of him. "My name is Blitzving!" Cyndi purposefully talked in his accent in order to really anger him. "No one can look at my eyes because I zhink zhey are so unmanly and cute! But vhen no one is looking, I like to put on my girlfriend's bra and undervear because I feel so frilly and beautiful!"

Blitzwing was furious. A weird hybridization of a growl and a roar emerged from his throat. He attempted to lunge at her but the back of the couch hindered his effort. The couch tilted forwards and fell to the ground with a loud crash.

"Oh, jou asked for it now!" he narrowed his revealed optics at her.

Both Cynthia and Mandy were laughing too hard at his anger and his clumsiness to properly intake the seriousness of his voice. The sisters were red in the face and on the verge of tears at it all.

While he was still on the floor with the couch, Blitzwing grasped Cynthia's left leg. She squealed at this and attempted to kick him, only to end up ramming her foot into his mouth. Then she moaned in disgust when she could feel his glossa beneath her barefoot and she withdrew it. He was poised to bite her foot so she could release the visor but she took it out of his mouth in time.

"Here, Hot Potato!" Cyndi said rapidly, chucking the visor at Amanda.

Amanda screamed and recoiled, not wanting to catch it. She didn't want to have him come after her. The accessory fell to the floor.

"Oh, come on!" the eldest sister pouted.

Blitzwing's grin was triumphantly devilish. While he still maintained a grip on her, he rose up onto his stabilizing servos. When he did this, Cynthia was swept off her feet and found herself dangling upside down. She flailed around in order to escape him but it was a fruitless effort. He then slung her over his shoulder and kept a servo on her back to keep her from struggling.

"You big, stupid brute, put me down!" she bucked her legs and pounded her fists on his thick hide.

"I don't zhink so," he replied. "I vant revenge and I'm going to get it."

With her still over his shoulder, Blitzwing bent down and snatched up the visor. He put it back on and exhaled happily: he felt complete now. After he did that, he walked toward the direction of Cynthia's bedroom. Amanda stayed out of his way entirely and allowed her sister to be toted off.

"I see where this is going," Mandy said as she followed them. "I downloaded a whole album of saxophone instrumentals. Of course you can add your own music to the air too…"

"Shut up, don't encourage him!" Cyndi almost screamed. "Shut up, Amanda, just shut the Hell up!"

Blitzwing laughed softly and shut the door behind him when he entered the bedroom. Amanda nearly screeched in laughter and only prevented herself from doing this by putting both of her hands up to her mouth.

"She was joking about that whole saxophone thing you know," Cyndi chuckled nervously. "You know her, she's always making up lies to make things worse!"

"I've learned to appreciate ze saxophone," was all he said.

He tossed her onto the bed. Cynthia bounced on the mattress and quickly sat up. She observed him as he walked over to her dresser.

"What are you doing?" she pressed with a raised eyebrow.

"Just jou vait," he said.

Blitzwing opened up one of the drawers and sifted through it. A few seconds later, he turned around and held up something to her. It was one of her bras.

"Vhat is zis, Cyndi?" he asked.

"It's a bra," she said.

"No, it's not." Before her very eyes, he tore it apart. "It's garbage now."

"You idiot!" Her eyes widened to the size of watermelons at what he had just done to her clothing. "I'll wrap that bra strap around your neck and strangle you with it!"

"Bite me." He turned around and selected another article of clothing. It was one of her other bras. "Zis isn't ze revenge. Zis is ze torture."

"Blitzwing!" She pounded a fist into the mattress. "Cut it out!"

"Zis is vhat jou get for taking advantage of me vhile I recharged. No one touches ze visor! And jou didn't even ask for me to take it off. Maybe if jou asked very politely and if I vas in a good enough mood, I'd take it off and show jou my optics. But jou had to play jour games vith me. So ve're going to play a different game now. It's called 'Let's see how many bras and undervear I have to rip apart before Cyndi gives up resisting'."

"You are so childish and immature! You are a full grown man-bot, so act like one! I want you to stop victimizing my clothes! I need them to go out into society and function!"

"If it vas completely up to me, I'd rip all jour clothes apart, burn zem and make jou valk around naked."

"Hmm, maybe I vill do zat!" Random stated. At last, he managed to dethrone Hothead. "I vould like zat very much! Ahahahaha!"

Cynthia never felt her face burn so hotly before at the horrid mental image in her head. She'd rather wear a cardboard box than waltz around in the nude. She almost felt like she was becoming physically ill upon even imaging such a thing.

"Over my dead body!" she declared.

"Suit jourself," the jack-o-lantern face shrugged. "Bra number two is history!"

"No, don't do it!"

"Jou mean zis?"

He shredded another one. After mangling it for a few seconds, he dropped it to the floor where it mixed in with the fabric and material from her first bra.

"You made a new enemy today!" Cynthia cracked her knuckles. "They cost me thirty nine ninety five a piece! Money doesn't grow on trees for me, Blitzwing! I'll force you to get a new paint job after I scratch the heck out of your paint!"

"Yes, get mad, Cyndi," Icy chuckled. "See vhere it gets jou."

"Don't you dare lay a finger on anymore of my things! Just let me hear what you want for your stupid revenge and I'll do it." She shook her head. "You know that you are a complete buffoon. And so what if I took your visor? Ooh, that's so evil! Shame, shame on Cynthia for taking Blitzwing's idiotic sunglasses! You are such a big baby!"

Blitzwing folded his arms across his chest and he eyed her with a mischievous gleam in his optics. A toothy grin made its debut. Then he sifted through her drawers again. This time, he pulled out a pair of underwear. Unfortunately for Cynthia and much to her great embarrassment, it was a lacy cheekster.

"Don't..." Cynthia said slowly and dangerously. "you...dare!"

"Do vhat?" he asked innocently. "I'm not doing anyzhing. I'm only admiring zhis lovely little strip of cloth."

Cyndi grabbed one of her hiking boots that were underneath her bed. She lifted it up and wore a grave expression on her face, showing that she meant business. She shook her head which was scorching hot from embarrassment.

"If you even stretch it out, I'm going to throw this heavy boot at your head!" she warned. "I promise I will make it hurt!"

"Cyndi, jou honestly cannot expect me to be afraid of a shoe," he chuckled.

"I will teach you to tremble in horror every single time I even mention it! Put the cheeksters away and cut it out!"

"No."

Defiantly, he shredded her underwear just as he had done to her bras.

When he did that, she chucked the boot at him with a yell. His quick reflexes had foiled her efforts and he caught the flying shoe in his right servo. Blitzwing laughed at this display of aggression and tossed the boot aside after examining it for a few seconds.

"I hate you," Cynthia said bitterly. "Just please, cut it out! Get to your pitiful revenge already!"

"Oh, but I love jou dearly," he said, placing a servo over his spark chamber. "No need to vorry, it vill be relatively painless if jou just cooperate."

"Somehow I don't believe that." She shook her head. "Your idea of revenge is sick and sadistic. You think it's funny to watch me scream and panic."

"Only during appropriate times. I'm only comically sadistic and never really zat brutal tovards jou, Cyndi. If I vas, I'm sure jou vould've died some time ago."

"Just get to the revenge, alright?"

"Trust me, I von't delay anozher moment," Hothead sniggered.

He approached her and then sat down next to her on the bed. Lightly, he placed a servo on her arm. With surprising tenderness, he moved his metal hand up and down on her bare flesh.

"What, you're going to pet me creepily like some kind of rapist?" Cynthia wrinkled her nose.

"Jou invade my privacy so I vill invade jours," Blitzwing explained.

Before he knew it, she pulled away from him in the blink of an eye. She curled up, pulling her legs close to her chest and wrapping her arms across her shins. Her eyes were huge with disbelief and alarm. While this was happening, her blush made its umpteenth return and she felt like she was set on fire.

"Don't!" she said sternly. "Don't you dare! I will scream if you even try to stick your hand up my shirt!"

"Who said I vas going to do zat?" Blitzwing mused.

"Well, what the heck do you plan on doing?"

"Jou yell at me for jumping to conclusions and look at vhat jou're doing now. Come on, I don't force myself on femmes. I zhought jou knew zat I vouldn't do such a zhing."

"You just said you were going to invade my privacy and what I thought you had in mind is a very private space indeed!"

"Eizher vay, I know jou vant me."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb vith me. Jou act like jou are so innocent and blind sometimes. And jou know how I feel too…"

She lowered her head and closed her eyes. After a few long, drawn out seconds of aversion, Cynthia looked back at him. She felt so awkward and uncomfortable even sitting next to him.

He was right though. Since they had been living with each other every day for the past two weeks, she felt as if their bond had strengthened. If he was Human, she'd seek to possibly consecrate and place some serious emphasis on it by making love to him. Unfortunately, such a thing couldn't be done. Secretly, she found herself becoming frustrated by this little pickle. To a certain extent, it was almost maddening to her. Yes, she loved him. But she couldn't express it in that primeval but timeless gesture.

"Let's not talk about this," she said.

Somehow, she got the impression he was rolling his optics beneath his visor but she didn't know whether he really was doing it or not. Blitzwing exhaled for a few seconds and scooted closer to her.

"Relax, I'm not going to do anyzhing to jou," he said.

It was almost as if her body bended to his whim when she loosened her defensive, protective posture. She didn't know if it was instinctual or her brain had malfunctioned but she unwound. Cynthia stretched her legs out and let her arms rest at her side.

Blitzwing moved closer to her. There was nowhere for her to back off or try to resist him. Mustering up some courage and guts, she didn't move. Letting him know she was a little nervous could possibly shatter their trust and relationship. That was something she simply did not wish to occur.

He sat down in front of her, settling mere centimeters from her form. Letting him control things, Cynthia allowed him to hoist her up onto his lap. The woman set her hands on his shoulders and almost drew them back in shock: he was scorching hot. But the hot sensation faded swiftly and he felt warm now.

Both of his servos ran up and down her curves, taunting her and at the same time pleasuring himself with her structure. Over and over they went, making her crazier with each motion of his metal hands. Blitzwing donned an arrogant, almost boastful smirk on his face as he touched her. His helm moved in closer to her face. The side of his metal cranium gently brushed up against her softer skull, nuzzling her. With a soft, guttural growl, he murmured into her ear.

Cynthia's body went rigid when she felt teeth nibble teasingly on her neck. He appeared amused by this and chuckled lowly.

"It's me," he whispered throatily into her ear. "Jou know better zhan to be fearful. Relax and follow my lead, Cyndi..."

It all felt so wrong for her. This shouldn't have been happening. This couldn't have been happening. Cynthia fiercely interrogated herself as to how everything compacted into the lust she was feeling right now. She felt whorish and loose for feeling this way and she certainly wouldn't condone herself if she was thinking about this in privacy. But since she was sitting in his hold and trying to make her receptive to his advances, she felt as if she was being tempted by an incubus. Things weren't meant to be this way. She couldn't make love to him and it made her so frustrated and angry. It wasn't fair and she cursed whatever divine entity was in control of the events that had transpired around her. Why did she have to fall in love with an inorganic alien of all things? Why couldn't it have been a man of her own kind? At least she'd be stripped down to nothing at that point.

Cynthia gasped sharply when she felt Blitzwing's digits tease the sensitive skin on her stomach. Her whole body froze up and she noticed her hips felt extraordinarily warm and tense. Her heart quickened and it felt like someone was sending an electrical charge through that biological pump. She felt as if someone tore her vocal cords out of her throat and she couldn't even speak, let alone utter a single groan or syllable.

"Oh G-g-god..!" she stuttered. "Cut it out, Blitzwing... This isn't fair!"

"Unfair?" Icy took command. "Vhat is so unfair about zis?" He withdrew his servo from beneath her shirt and ceased the fingering that was gradually travelling up her trunk. "I love jou and vish to appreciate jou and express my feelings by being intimate vith jou. Ve didn't have ze chance to be so close earlier... And I must confess zat I love zis whole scenario of us living togezher. I feel as if I somehow love jou even more now zhan before. I zhink zis month vill do vonders for us. I vill almost be upset to be honest vhen it all ends."

"Long story short, I vant to make ze most of zhings!" Random winked at her.

"That's very flattering and sweet but..." Cyndi stammered. She attempted to scoot out of his lap but she was reminded that his arms were wrapped around her. "Don't you think you're making a mistake by any chance..?"

"Oh, I don't zhink so... Ze same femme I have been in love vith for avhile now is here sitting daintily in my lap. Vhat more could I ask for? Loosen up, Cyndi."

"Wait a minute!" She was gawking at him now. "Do you mean to..?"

"Rest assured, all is vell," Icy stroked the back of her head. "I am not unavare of Human courtship practices. Do jou zhink I am some crude brute?"

"Uh, well... No. B-but..!"

"Vell, let's enjoy vhat time ve have left," Hothead said impatiently.

His hold around her tightened, making her back crack dully. It felt good and she wasn't pained by it. His mouth came upon hers and almost overlapped it completely as his brewing lust quietly swelled. Blitzwing lied onto his back, bringing Cynthia down with him. She rested atop his chest with her arms wrapped around the back of his helm, anchoring herself in the position that she was in.

"Please..." she said as she took a breath of air.

"Jou said 'please'," he grinned.

Before she could even try to defog her increasingly cloudy mind, he slipped his glossa into her mouth. She issued a muffled yelp but that quickly died down to nothing when she saw it was daft to try to resist him. It was about as useless as stopping the sea from undulating. Cynthia had practically forgot all her past phobias and her nagging conscious and completely submitted to the overwhelming feelings she found herself at mercy to. The fact that she was passionately in love with a denizen from another world was a petty afterthought to her now.

Blitzwing was becoming rather frustrated and fed up with grappling with the emotions in him. If he had a femme of his own species with him at the moment, he'd rip into her without any mercy but since his lover was Human, he needed to be especially tender and careful. What he said about experiencing stronger feelings for her since they had started living together were true. He did feel like his bond with her strengthened greatly. All those kisses, hugs, warmth and closeness that was now permitted had him addicted.

He was starting to see her differently too. He caught himself looking at her rump far more often than usual, much to Cynthia's ignorance. The pear-shaped structure of her frame that he had truly started appreciate as soon as he legitimately embraced her, made his circuitry overheat a little. She seemed more beautiful, both on the inside and outside to him. It was almost magical and inexplicable. All three of the personas mentally thanked Professor Sumdac for this situation he unintentionally made possible.

"Now vill jou stop being so scared and treating zis all as if it is some kind of evil sin?" he said after breaking the deep kiss. "Cynzhia, jou do know zat I love jou, right?"

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I am a big coward..."

"All zat matters is zat ve both love each ozher. I'm not pressuring jou, I just vanted to tell jou vhat I zhink, zat's all."

"Well, thanks for putting up with me. I'm sure you're ready to knock my head off..."

"By vay of ramming into jou, yes!" Random laughed. The 'Con happily gazed into her eyes and kissed her cheek.

"You have no shame, don't you?"

"Nope!"

Before he could try to egg her on more and possibly get to the juicier things, there was a loud bang that sounded against Cynthia's bedroom door. The door suddenly swept open before the strange lovers could even really react. When the door opened up further, they could see the hunched-over figure of Amanda on the floor. Her eyes were fixed directly on Cynthia and Blitzwing who were still lying rather closely together.

"HOLY MOTHER OF..!" the younger sister gaped.

Blitzwing sat up so quickly when he discovered this wannabe peeping Thomasina, Cynthia reeled away from him and fell off the bed. He gasped sharply at what he had done to her in his surprised state. The triple changer didn't know what to think when he discovered that she had been spying on him and Cyndi most likely since they closed the door. At first, all he could do was stare at her in shock but then that evolved into full blown rage as the seconds went by.

"AMANDA!" Hothead bellowed. "Jou little eavesdropper, jou ruined it all!"

"I swear to God, I wasn't even listening because it was all muffled!" Amanda hurridly explained. "I was going to back off when you started doing my sister anyway because I don't want nightmares..!"

Her hands slapped against her mouth, mortified that she slipped out a little too much information.

The cannon barrels positioned above Blitzwing's shoulders had little flames licking out. His face bore a heavy, ugly frown which further proved just how infuriated that his privacy had been molested. He might've felt some embarrassment but he was angry more than anything else. All he wanted to do now was strangle Mandy until her head popped off.

"Jou totally ruined ze mood!" Random complained.

Cynthia rubbed her rump with one hand and tried to hide the immense blush with the other hand. She stood up and hustled out of the room, feeling like she needed to be by herself for a moment to overcome the shame she felt burning in her. For a moment, she almost wanted to thank Mandy for leaning in too closely on the door to place her ear on it and spy. A series of raunchy, horrid mental images ran through her head as she pictured what would've happened if she didn't accidentaly intervene. Secretly, she also felt a bit disappointed that it all ended because even she had to admit she was enjoying it all.

"Vait, C-Cyndi!" the black and red face called out.

His wing struts flared and his notorious smile was nowhere to be seen. His optics formed into narrow slits and he began to growl in a bestial tone. If he had retractable claws, he'd be brandishing them before Amanda.

"GET OUT!" Blitzwing stomped a stablizing servo into the carpeted floor.

"I'm going, I'm going!" the blonde said.

She literally crawled away to get distance herself from him.

Darien poked his head out from behind his door when he heard the commotion from his room. Upon seeing that Cynthia was standing in the living room, massaging her temples and Amanda was crawling on her hands and knees back into her room, he closed his door. With Blitzwing yelling and making noise, he wanted none of it and retreated back into his room.

When she was out of reach of the door, Blitzwing uttered some very unpleasant and crude curses in his native tongue and slammed the door shut.


	36. Poisonous Words

**Thanks for the reviews/faves/alert people! So I updated a lot earlier than usual. The reason; I'm on chapter 41 now and I noticed there's a surplus of chapters in my document manager. Not only that, I have been moving at a snail's pace with this story. Alright, so this is a long one like the previous chapter... But it's not without good reason. To be honest, this is my personal favorite chapter so far for reasons that you will see very shortly. I had lots of fun writing it and hopefully you'll all have an equal amount of excitement with reading it. All I can say is: Poor Human female... **

Chapter 36 Poisonous Words

(June 23rd – Decepticon base, 9:50pm)

Deep within his spark, he couldn't repress the feelings of curiosity swell up inside him like a dam that was ready to burst and wipe out everything in its path. From the very beginning, he had been very interested in this secret yet extremely controversial issue. It had been some days since he had last seen his formerly closest friend and he had not contacted him nor did his friend even reach out to him via their comm systems. Everything he heard was knowledge Megatron had received from Lockdown or occasionally, Blitzwing. For Starscream, it wasn't enough and he craved to learn more.

As he neared the entrance of the mine, the marrow-chilling glow of his optics began to rival the soft, pallid moonlight that shone on the ground. When he made it to the mouth of the cavern a few seconds later, the ruby aura dimmed now that he was out in the open. Starscream looked up to the tranquil, clear, starry heavens. The evening wasn't heavily hot nor was it cold enough to wear a sweater: the conditions were just right.

Steadily, it was tearing him apart. His spark felt like it was being licked by hateful, black, evil flames. His whole chassis burned and his face plates felt unnaturally hot. If he was a Human, he'd think he was running a fever. How he hated the woman…

How dare she manipulate his little brother, whom he had helped to raise and had loved his whole life. She had some gall to make him fall for her. No one could do that. No organic at least.

'_Kill her… Kill her until there's nothing left to maim and maul.'_

Although the two had disowned each other long ago shortly after they entered the Decepticon ranks, Starscream very understandably couldn't let go of Blitzwing completely. He couldn't help to not feel possessive of his life and try to mold it into an existence he saw fit. When he would finally hatch a truly successful coup to eliminate Megatron once and for all, he had planned to make the triple changer his second in command. It would be just the two of them at the top. He always wished it to be that way and he always sought the best for them.

However, along the way to win glory and entitlements, Starscream had lost his way. He had become a cold-sparked, conniving, scavenging and venomous trickster. He had been poisoned by Megatron and his doctrines of ruthlessness and his emphasis on the survival of the fittest.

'_Kill her. Just do it. It'll be done in a moment.'_

What had happened to Blitzwing was unthinkable and unacceptable. He was much too good for anyone, especially for the likes of that frumpy, unflattering, disdainful and loathsome Human. Starscream had disapproved of her and that was that. Even if she was Cybetronian, he would hate her and lacerate her mercilessly like he did to an Autobot femme so many years earlier. With twisted pleasure, he would enjoy her lifeblood stain his digits and watch as the light flickered out from her eyes like a candle with no more wax to burn.

Starscream shut his optics. He could imagine the pain he would certainly cause Blitzwing if he had killed Cynthia. Without a doubt, he would try to avenge her too.

"It'd be for your own good," he mumbled. "It's called 'tough love', Blitzy."

'_Kill her! It must be done sooner or later before anything drastic can happen. He may look happy but he's slowly dying because of her… Help him!'_

He blocked out the malevolent, wicked thoughts that had been circling within the sanctity of his helm for the past few months. The only reason why he hadn't killed her yet was because he had been waiting to see what more would unfold. Not only that, Megatron had forbidden him to slay her or her siblings for the time being.

His optics reopened and the jet stared back at the sky. For a moment, he looked away from the celestial sphere and glanced at the object he nearly forgot about in his servos. Smirking, he gently shifted the device in his cold grasp.

Then Starscream's wings flared and he leapt into the air. After morphing into his vehicle mode, he sped off.

"I want to know her so I can get into her head."

(apartment – 10:00pm)

"_Then he used his fight money to buy two of every animal on Earth. And then herded them onto a boat and then he beat the crap out of every single one! And from that day forward anytime a bunch of animals are together in one place it's called a zoo!_"

Random slapped Darien in the back between the shoulder blades, making the boy yell out in pain. The mech tilted his helm back and laughed heartily at the YouTube video.

"Augh, that hurt!" Darien hissed through gritted teeth. "I'm Human here!"

"I didn't understand vhat he vas talking about but I loved every single moment of it!" Random wiped an imaginary tear away. "Zis Human is amazing! If I vas a femme, I vould vant to be his girlfriend!"

Darien scooted an inch away from Blitzwing, ever so slightly crept out by his comment. Blitzwing closed the distance Darien was trying to put between them and he lassoed an arm around his neck. Sniggering, he brought the boy close.

"Vhat shall ve vatch next?" he said, looking through the list of videos that were displayed on the side of the page.

"I don't want to watch anymore videos," the youngest sibling said. "My eyes feel like they're going to melt out of my skull."

"Vhat did jou say?" Hothead growled, tightening his grip around Darien's neck.

"I mean…" He swallowed. "Bring it on! I can watch videos all night long! Now please let go of my neck!" His voice was faltering. "I don't need a trip to the hospital!"

"Vonderful!" Random released him and threw his arms up into the air.

"Just please don't put 'Sparta Remix' on again! I'm going to hear it my deepest, darkest nightmares tonight!"

"I vill put it on just to annoy ze Pit out of jou!" said Hothead.

"Please, no! I'm begging you!"

Blitzwing rapidly typed in a few keywords on the search bar. He swiped the laptop from Cynthia without asking her but she didn't bother to try to get it back from him. As long he was appeased and not bored, that's all she cared about.

Darien sighed heavily. Shaking his head, he decided to look away from the computer screen and let him surprise him with the next video.

He thought it wasn't going to be bad being trapped inside the apartment with Blitzwing for two hours. Amanda was closing down at work and Lockdown was obviously with her. Cynthia had left to get some shopping done (which mainly included buying bottles of oil for Blitzwing). So, he was left alone with the triple changer. In reality, he didn't mind him. But now that he was the only other present being besides him, he bugged him mercilessly. Sometimes he didn't know how in the heck Cyndi dealt with him sometimes.

A few moments after he looked away, Darien could hear soft, relaxing, piano music playing from the laptop. He dared to look at the screen…

"Oh, this looks alright," the Human male said.

"I heard about zis video from ozher ones I vatched," Blitzwing explained. He chuckled at the two girls in the video. "Zat's nice…"

"Hey, they look alright. Kinda hot actually."

The two continued to watch the video with big grins on their faces. What could possibly go heinously wrong with it?

Then…

"Vait, vhat's up vith ze cup..?" Blitzwing asked.

"Oh my God!" At last, Darien realized what this was. "Turn it off! I have a weak stomach! My friends, Benji and Teddy, saw this a year ago and told me all about it!"

"Sit jour skinny aft down and vatch it! Take it like a bot!"

"I will not watch chicks eat each other's…" His hand went across his mouth. "SHIT!"

All the triple changer could do was stare at the computer screen with his jaw hanging. He had seen his fair share of disturbing and outlandish things in his lifetime but he was quite sure that what he was watching was definitely in his list of top five curious sights. What rocked him the most was that he didn't suspect Humans were capable of creating such a foul piece of work.

Thankfully, the video ended not too long afterwards. Darien's head was buried into his hands. Blitzwing was still staring blankly at the screen, his facial expression not changing at all.

"Nice, zat vas burned into my memory cores for all of eternity," Icy said weakly, massaging his temple. "I'm going to delete zis from ze history before jour sister screams at me."

"But before I do zat," Random interrupted, "do jou vant to hear ze most annoying sound in ze universe?"

"No," Darien said quickly, shaking his head just as rapidly.

He grabbed him by the front of his t-shirt and pulled him far too closer than what Darien would want. The seventeen year old could feel some sweat bead on his forehead. The jet-tank had an almost evil look to his smile.

"YEEEEEEEE!" Blitzwing screeched in a high pitched tone.

"Shut up!"

"Okay! I'll stop because I zhink I see blood coming out of jour ears."

He loosened his grip on him and Darien happily scooted away from him. Darien took a few deep breaths, trying to overcome the ringing in his ears. It was almost making him physically ill.

"Are you ever this bad with Cynthia?" he questioned, cautiously putting a finger up to his ear to check for blood.

"I'm only really annoying vhen I'm bored," Blitzwing said matter-of-factly. "In speaking of her, vhat's taking her so long?"

"I'm starving!" Hothead complained.

"Calm down, she went to get some oil and scrap metal for you," Darien said in a calm and dignified manner. He was not going to be like Amanda. "She probably got stuck in traffic."

(apartment parking lot)

Cynthia pulled the keys out of the ignition. Frantically, she turned around to check to see if she did have Blitzwing's "groceries" in the backseat. Seeing a few plastic bags confirmed that she did have all that she had purchased from the auto part store. She sighed in relief and ran a hand through her hair. Running back to the shop was not on her list of things to do. Not only that, it was closed at this hour.

"He can kiss my big butt if he doesn't like what I got," she mumbled. "They were fresh out of his favorite kind."

Although she did love him, she found her patience dangerously ebbing with him. With every single hug, grope and kiss he gave her, she felt like biting his helm off. Cyndi had to admit that he could be highly annoying at times and he was constantly pestering her. Earlier she was basking in this tenderness but as the days dragged on, she felt miffed and invaded. She had disappeared for the past two hours with the intentions to distance herself away from Blitzwing and so she could get some real privacy. For the past "x" amount of days, her private time was consumed by the triple changer and his attempts to become intimate with her. There were slight bruises that ran up along the side of her body that were proof of such ventures.

Her cell phone began to ring. Without checking the caller I.D., she answered it.

"Hello," she said.

"Vhere are jou?" Hothead demanded.

"What happened to 'hello'?" She grimaced at the phone and rolled her eyes. "What is it, Blitzwing?"

"Vhat's taking jou so long? Jou left at eight to get me somezhing to eat. Does it really take jou zat long?"

"Hey, idiot, did you stop to think that I'm late because I got stuck in traffic? I'm sorry, Your Majesty!"

"Vhere are jou now?"

"I'm outside! I'm in my car and I have your groceries. Goodbye!" Murmuring under her breath, Cynthia hung up on him and threw her phone into her purse. "I think he's worse than my mother…"

She opened up the car door and exited her vehicle. Once she stepped out into the outside, she closed the door. Then she leaned up against the car. Silently, she mulled over the game plan she had planned out for the evening.

Give him his oil, watch TV and fall asleep on the couch. There was no way she was in the mood to even share a bed with him this night. Cyndi even seriously considered asking Lockdown if she could sleep in his cabin. But then she quickly discarded that idea since she realized how perverse it was. Not only that, she didn't feel like having a jealous Blitzwing raising a ruckus and accusing her of being unfaithful.

"Get this done and over with," she whispered to herself.

Cyndi turned around to open up the back, left passenger door so she could grab the items she purchased. The door handle clicked and she pulled it open. She reached in to grab the "food" merchandise.

A chill ran down her spine all of a sudden and she got the distinct, awkward feeling that she was being watched. She slowly backed off and looked around the empty parking lot. As far as she could see, there was no one around.

Before she could shrug it off she could hear a faint noise that sounded like something fizzling. It sounded like a firecracker and as she remained standing, listening to it, it grew louder. Cynthia froze up and tried to identify the phantom sound.

When it was practically buzzing in her ears, she at last realized this sounded a lot like the rockets Blitzwing had in his boots. This realization struck her too late for her to react in any other way.

Cynthia screamed in agony as something slashed through her t-shirt and dug into her flesh. They were very sharp and she could've sworn that someone had plunged two hedge clippers into her shoulder blades. Not even a second after the talons had gripped her flesh, she found herself being lifted off the ground as if she was a salmon in a bald eagle's talons. Her legs bucked in the air furiously as her captor ascended into the sky and she became more distant from the earth below.

She looked up to confirm the identity her abductor. When she did this, she was met with a pair of hostile optics. A fanged grin greeted her.

"Good evening, Cynthia," Starscream said suavely. He appeared to have shrunken down to the same height as Blitzwing which explained how he was able to assault her without killing her instantly. "I'm sure you won't mind if I borrow you for a little while. I promise I'll return you home in enough time for you to bleed to death with your family."

(…)

Both Darien and Blitzwing had heard the pain-filled scream originating from the parking lot. They looked at each other, immediately recognizing the scream and who the owner of the voice was.

"Zat's jour sister!" Hothead barked. "She's in trouble!"

He rose off the couch and dashed to the door to rush out and aid his lover. Before he could even make it to the door, Darien bolted past him and stood in front of his path. Blitzwing did not like this one bit.

"Get out of ze vay, puny mech!" he thundered. "Jour sister needs help!"

"You can't go outside, what if there are people there?" Darien asked quickly. "No one can know you're living with us!"

"Like I care about zat at ze moment!"

"I'll go out and check on her!" He faltered for a moment, trying to process everything going on. "Just please… Don't go out!"

"Get out of my vay before I punch jou! I like jou but jou're not stopping me, Darien!"

Fully believing he was telling the truth, Darien raised his hands up in a surrendering posture and moved out of the way. He unwillingly stood aside and allowed Blitzwing to continue on with the task of aiding Cynthia.

"Jou're smarter zhan jou let on, boy," said Icy.

The purple and beige bot gripped the doorknob and turned it. He pushed the door open with Darien following him closely behind. Blitzwing stood in the corridor and scanned his surroundings for anything suspicious. He could see Cynthia's car: the back passenger door was left wide open but there was no sign of her anywhere near her vehicle.

"Cyndi!" her brother called out. "Please answer me!"

"Jou're coming vith me," the Decepticon said suddenly.

"Wha-what?"

Before Darien could possibly protest or react in any other way, Blitzwing threw his arms around him. He pulled him close, making the boy fidget in extreme discomfort. Without a moment to lose, he jumped over the railing that separated the open air corridor from the rest of the outside world and began to fall to the concrete walkway thirty feet below.

There was a method to this brash, seemingly brainless action. Blitzwing activated his thrusters and saved himself and Darien from crashing violently onto the concrete walkway below. He stabilized himself and flew upwards.

"I'm keeping my eyes closed!" the Human male put his hands up to his eyes. "This is way too much for me! Why the heck did you have to do this?"

"Because I zhink she vas abducted," his alien companion replied. "It didn't take us long to get outside even after jour momentary hindrance. I don't zhink she could have disappeared so quickly zhrough organic kidnappers."

"What're you saying..?"

"One of my own took her."

(the peninsula)

Scowling in disdain, Starscream dropped his prize when he hovered about five feet above the ground. Cynthia collapsed onto the earth, landing on her side. Such a landing made her yelp in pain and she curled up on the ground. The seeker looked at his bloodstained servos and shook them off, sending some stray droplets flying.

"Goodness, you're just full of blood, aren't you?" he asked, deactivating his thrusters and dropping to the ground. He knelt down at her side and poked her in her ribs. "Oh, come now. It couldn't have been that bad when I grabbed you."

"It felt like Freddy Kreuger stabbed me!" she moaned, still curled up. "Clip those talons of yours!"

"Get up, I want to see you."

Her shoulder blades burned terribly. Cynthia could only imagine what they looked like. Judging from the pain she was feeling, they had to have looked awful from his eviscerating claws. She could feel a warm stream of blood course down her back.

With effort, she tilted her head upwards to look Starscream in the optics. On his faceplate, he wore an arrogant, snide smirk. It made her blood curdle and simultaneously, she wished she could smash his face in with a rock.

"What do you want?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"I just want to talk," he answered. "I want to get to know you since you might become Megatron's servant."

"Well, what you did really got my attention. I'm probably going to need a ton of stitches and how am I going to explain this in the ER?"

"Shake it off, you'll be fine. Your sweetspark almost bit my helm off after we got our base when that whole ordeal with me threatening you a few months ago happened."

"Oh." Cynthia laughed softly. "I wish I could've seen him do that. And you probably screamed like a little girl the entire time, didn't you?"

He slapped her across her face, giving her a case of whiplash in the process. The back of her head smacked the ground and she curled up again. Her cheek stung painfully and she could almost feel the red hand print form on her face.

"You hit like a two year old girl," she taunted. Deep inside, she firmly believed Starscream wouldn't kill her. If he killed her, all Hell would break loose for him. "I think I hit better than you."

Scowling, the seeker cupped her face with one servo and lifted her up off the ground. Starscream dangled her and brought his faceplate awfully close to her own visage. Cynthia looked directly back at him, displaying to him that she wasn't going to curl up like a hedgehog and let him achieve the satisfaction of assaulting her.

"I'm not so sure about that," he sneered.

"I am not afraid of you," the Human asserted. She cleared her throat and spat out a phlegm ball. It hit him right between his optics. "Come on, I dare you to rip my throat out with those nasty fingernails of yours! It'll be the last thing you ever do!"

"I'm not as naive as you perceive me to be." With his other servo, he wiped the loathsome piece of spit off his faceplate. "I can brutalize you but I cannot kill you. Truthfully, I don't want to kill you… Well, not presently. I just want to see you screw up. I'll laugh and laugh and laugh at that and then dance on your ashes after Megatron annihilates you. I'm surprised you spit on me. You're not that crude. I'd expect that from your sister but not you…" He chuckled. "Why so serious? You're the polite one in your family."

"None of your business… But if I have to offer some explanation, it's that I have absolutely no privacy anymore."

"It was your turn to bear the brunt of that burden. Now you know how we feel dealing with him for thousands upon thousands of Earth years. How's it feel?"

"I manage. I'd take out my fury on him but since you're right here in front of my face, bleeding a river out of my back, I can redirect all that nastiness towards you."

"I'd like to see you try, darling."

Curtly, Starscream let her fall to the ground. Cynthia snarled in pain, glaring daggers at him. He knelt back down so he could have her undivided attention. She attempted to sit up but found it easier to lie on her side and not exert herself too much.

"What do you want?" she said.

"Let me ask you a question," he raised a digit that was crusted with her dried blood.

"Why? I thought we were at war, remember? You showed up in the parking lot back in December and I thought it was Blitzwing. I sent you that nice little letter and you wrote an equally pleasant note back to me. You knew about him and I from the beginning."

"I always keep an optic on him. You could say that I feel protective of him."

"You're a twisted stalker."

"Thank you. And you happen to be as attractive as Lugnut's aft."

"It's far more handsome than you, so thank you kindly."

Starscream smiled.

"Now I think I'm starting to understand why he fell for you," he remarked. "You have a mouth. Even in odds such as this, you put on a brave face and I know he appreciates that."

"Shut up, you know nothing of him!" she barked. "Last time I checked, he hates you!"

She didn't know what it was but it seemed as if what she had said really struck a chord within his spark. The arrogant, cold air to his optics had vanished and they suddenly softened. But before Cyndi really could confirm that he somehow seemed almost offended, his mechanical eyes blazed with fury. Instantly, she regretted what she had said to him and she knew she was in serious trouble.

"I would not say such things if I were you," he said.

He grabbed her by her hair. Cynthia screamed as if someone was trying to quarter her. It especially hurt her since her hair was shoulder length and he needed to grasp her roots to gain a grip on her.

"Let me go!" she begged, trying to undo his hold on her hair.

Ignoring her pleas, Starscream dragged her over to the cliff where the frothing waters of Lake Erie loomed below. She flailed around, desperate to free herself. While she did this, she ended up hurting herself more and she could've sworn clumps of hair were going to be falling out of her scalp if she kept it up.

"I also believe you can be too brave at times," he resumed. "I will break you, femme."

"Please, someone!" she wailed, calling out to anyone who could possibly hear her. "Please, help me!"

He halted when he got to the precipice. Starscream released her. Before she could possibly crawl away or try to stand up and bolt, the seeker grabbed her by her neck.

Cynthia gagged and once more tried to free herself. All he did was exert some pressure and he quickly discouraged her efforts. Bearing a triumphant grin on his gray faceplate, he held her over the edge of the cliff with her feet dangling and kicking furiously beneath her.

"I do believe that is the stupidest thing I heard you say," he said. "I don't know him? Are you sure about that? Then again, I can understand where you're coming from. I'm sure he kept you in the dark entirely regarding the relationship I had with him before this wretched civilization was even born!"

"What're you talking about?" She was both enraged and terrified at the same time. The claw-like clamp around her throat was so strong that she couldn't even swallow. "He just told me you were a slimy, loathsome, deceitful, dishonorable worm!"

"Ha! Cynthia, you are a huge fool. He is a Decepticon just like me. He is as equally slimy, loathsome, deceitful and dishonorable as me and any other bot in that cause… I'm going to assume that he hasn't told you what we once were?"

"Just tell me..!"

"Brothers. We're related. I'm his older brother. We grew up together and we were each other's best friends. However, when we joined the Decepticon ranks… We had a falling out. We disowned one another and we refused to even acknowledge each other as family."

"You're lying! You two only look slightly similar in one way or the other..!" She placed her hands on top of the servo that had a hold on her neck. "Please, put me down on the ground! I can't breathe!"

"Well, we are what we are whether you want to accept it or not. I advise you to ask him if that is the truth. I have a feeling he won't try to hide that from you."

"How do I know you're not lying?" Her face began to turn purple from the lack of oxygen.

"Cynthia, I know things about him that would make your flesh crawl. He is always lying to you about every little thing and he always will. He's a natural born liar and killer. You think he's so charming, attractive, humorous, brave, protective and considerate. You really are as dumb as you led me to believe. I pity you, femme. In fact, if things get any worse, I will even feel and see the need to protect you from him if necessary."

"You are absolutely out of your mind!"

"Not so much, no… Did he ever tell you about her?"

Cynthia felt dread churn in her stomach. The pounding of the waves had been tuned out and she focused solely on his last sentence. She gazed back into Starscream's optics, his words swirling around in her mind like a whirlpool made of black water.

"Her..?" Cynthia choked. "Who's 'her'?"

"You poor creature," he said almost piteously. "He's poised to rip you to pieces."

The jet yanked her to him, at last pulling her away from the drop off. He freed her from the steely cold grasp of his servo. Starscream took a step back to give her some personal space so she could recover from her ordeal at her own leisure.

Cynthia took heaving gasps, pumping fresh air into her lungs. A few hacking coughs emerged from her throat. Her knees felt unstable but she didn't want to display any further signs of exhaustion to him.

After two minutes passed, she at last returned her gaze to him.

"Her," she said yet again, "tell me who she is."

"Where should I start?" he tapped his chin. "Well, I'll make a long story short. Blitzwing was in love with a Decepticon femme a thousand stellar cycles or so ago. Now this was before he had become the mech you see today…"

"What do you mean by that exactly? You mean he wasn't born the way he is now?"

"Oh, certainly not. It looks like he's keeping you in the dark about a lot of things. He was sparked with only one face. He was grievously injured during a battle against Autobot forces and his chances of survival were quite bleak. But this femme that he had fallen for said that she could offer him a new chance at life. She did, and rebuilt him into the thing living with you now."

Genuinely, she didn't know what to feel or how to react. He never did tell her how he had become a triple changer. In fact, he never did tell her much about his past. Whenever she would try to discuss it, he'd brush it off by saying it wasn't worth talking over. Instead of talking about himself, he always seemed to be interested in her and who she was. With Starscream's news of this mysterious female Cybertronian Blitzwing was allegedly in love with, this began to worry Cynthia.

"Don't worry too much about it," he said, noticing the concern on her face. "Their relationship was actually extremely short lived in all honesty; it only lasted a few Earth weeks. In fact, I think he loved her more than she loved him because it was completely one sided."

"What was her name?" she inquired.

"I forget. Trust me, you shouldn't dwell on it too much since it is a trivial matter. If it offers you any comfort, the two hate each other thoroughly."

"Starscream."

"Yes, Cynthia?"

She swallowed hard. Cyndi could feel sweat form on her palms.

"Why are you telling me these things?" the organic questioned.

"I must admit this, Cynthia." He began to pace around her. "At first I thought you were a stupidly blind fleshling. However, recently, I've started to see you in a different light. I almost pity you because you are being so misled. The more I think about it, you're not stupid; only tricked. Has he hurt you at all since you've sheltered him?"

"No, of course not! He loves me and I love him! Starscream, I..!" She shook her head. "I don't believe you. You're playing games with me! You're trying to paint him as someone he isn't!"

"I urge you to question him and pry into his helm. Keep an eye on him."

"If he really is as wicked as you portray him to be, why does he hug and kiss me? Why does he tell me that he loves me?"

"Because he is a Decepticon. It's what he does."

"And you?"

"I don't know what more I can say." He stopped directly behind her. Starscream placed his servos on her shoulders. His optics studied the huge red blotches and streaks that stained her white shirt. "All I can say is watch yourself."

"Why do you care?" She broke away from his touch. "As far as I know, we hate each other! I still hate you now!"

"And that is fine. I completely understand you. I am showing interest in keeping you enlightened on this matter because I pity you. You're a Human drawn into an ancient conflict. This is not your fight. This was never meant to be your war. You became absorbed into this great strife through the greatest gift: love."

Truly, she was at a loss for words. Cynthia could say nothing more or less to her lover's kin. All she could manage to do was stare blankly at the ground whilst her thoughts ran wild.

"I will leave you be, Cynthia," Starscream said. He walked around her to look her in the eye. "You must mull over all that I have said to you. I will contact him and inform him you are here."

"A-alright," she said.

"Oh, apologies for the nasty wounds I gave you."

"That's fine… A little peroxide and cotton balls will cure it."

"I just have a little more to tell you. Look at me, please."

She tilted her head up and faced him. In contrast to earlier where his optics bore nothing but contempt and malice towards her, he seemed much more affable and approachable. Cyndi saw it so extraordinarily odd but comforting at the same time.

"I'm sure he loves you," the seeker almost whispered. "But I am only giving you a fair warning. After all, I am sure that you are aware even at this point that he is not the soundest, most stable soul. Talk to him. Get into his helm and find out more about him. I'm sure he'd appreciate you taking such an interest in him." He actually smiled at her without an evil twist. "You may as well begin your training for putting your services to good use for Megatron. Do you get my hint? Or have you decided on what to do already for yourself and your siblings?"

Cyndi thought for a few seconds. Then she realized what he was referring too.

"A spy?" she answered. "Spying? That is your suggestion?" She couldn't believe she was actually starting to smile. "That…that just might work!"

"That is all I can say to you at this point," he nodded his head. "I am glad to be of assistance to you. Yet if you have any other ideas, feel free to entertain them. Just make sure you know what you're doing when the month is up. I believe you have a little under two Earth weeks left."

"That's right." She paused. "I can't believe I'm saying this but thank you, Starscream. I think you just saved me and my siblings' skin."

"You're welcome. Now I must be off. Megatron will be wondering where I ran off to." He ascended. "Oh, and Cynthia."

"Yes?"

"Don't be afraid to come and talk to me if you have to. We are going to be on the same team after all. Goodnight."

He then flew up and away from Cyndi, leaving her on the ground below. For a moment, he turned back to see her watching him fly off. When he looked away from her, he chuckled darkly.

"Slag, I'm good," he told himself. "I don't have to do much at this point. All I have to do is stand back, be friendly and wait and see what she does. She'll have a wonderful time of navigating that melting pot of truths and lies I presented to her…"

Then he remembered he was to call Blitzwing about her location. He activated his comm and patched in the triple changer's code. Starscream waited a few seconds to make sure he got a good signal and then spoke.

"Blitzwing, your femme is at the lake."

(apartment – 11:15pm)

Amanda looked over her sister's wounds with wide eyes. In her left hand, she held a bottle of peroxide and in her right, she held a bag of cotton balls. Her mouth was agape as she studied the puncture marks, disbelieving how this had all come about.

Cynthia was hunched over the sink with her bra being the only article of clothing on her torso. The bloody shirt was tossed into the garbage can since it had been ripped and stained quite heavily. Her eyes were shut and she was bracing herself for the painful nip of the peroxide that would be applied to her injuries.

"Get this done and over with," Cynthia said. "I don't need to develop some kind of freaky bacterial infection that rots my flesh."

"You are so lucky," the blonde retorted.

"I know. I guess the big guy was looking out for me, huh? Now please clean them. I would do it myself but my arms aren't made of elastic."

"This is going to be fun…"

She twisted the cap off the chemical solution and set the bottle down on the edge of the sink. Amanda then opened up the cotton ball bag and took out a handful. Tossing the bag to the ground, she grabbed the peroxide. She poured a tiny bit onto a cotton ball. For a moment, she dreaded doing this but it had to be done.

"Don't bite my head off," she said.

"I'll try not to," Cynthia mumbled grimly.

Being as gentle as possible, Mandy dabbed the cotton ball on one of the eight puncture marks. Her sister reared back in agony, head butting Amanda with the back of her skull in the process. Cyndi's head collided with the bridge of her nose, making the younger sister yell out in pain.

"God, that hurt!" Mandy massaged her nasal bridge.

"You think that hurt?" the brunette snapped. "It feels like I got stabbed by those garden shear fingers of his again!"

"I'm seeing stars in my eyes now!"

"Then go lay down, I'll do it myself."

A loud pounding reverberated against the door. The two sisters jumped at this, almost forgetting that Blitzwing was hovering outside the bathroom door.

"Let me in now," Hothead commanded. "It sounds like a torture chamber in zhere!"

"I can just imagine it'll sound Hell's jail if you come in," Amanda yelled back. "We have it under control."

"I zhink zhere's two hurt femmes in zhere instead of one. If jou don't open zis door in zhree seconds, it comes down."

"Blitzwing, there's no need to add drama to this," Cynthia shook her head.

"Oh, slag zis! To ze Pit vith one and two because here comes zhree!"

There was nothing the two could do to prevent a determined Blitzwing from getting what he wanted. Reluctantly, they allowed him entrance to the bathroom.

The door opened and he walked in. When he entered, he was greeted with tired looking faces. Amanda appeared uncomfortable with his presence and she was looking out at the hallway behind him.

"Hoo, this is awkward," she said. "Have fun, Cyndi."

She squeezed past Blitzwing, trying her hardest to not even brush against him while passing him. When she made it out into the hall, she crossed it and went straight into her room. Amanda closed the door and officially turned in for the night, leaving her sister and her alien gentleman caller in the bathroom.

When the reality registered to Cynthia that Blitzwing was in the bathroom with her a few seconds after Amanda left, a chill ran down her spine. The reminder she was wearing only a bra on her torso was another realization that struck her. Gasping sharply, she grabbed a towel that was hanging from a wrack bolted into the wall. She threw it across her chest, concealing her cleavage completely.

"Oh, don't be modest!" Random twiddled his digits excitedly. "It's only jou and I in here after all! Or vould jou prefer ze bedroom vhere ve have more space?"

"None of this, I beg of you," Cyndi rolled her eyes. "Can you please try to clean out my wounds? I already hurt my sister who was trying to help me. You're bigger and stronger than she and I combined so you can hold me down when…"

He cackled at her sentence structure and word choice. She blushed on the other hand and held the towel even tighter against her body.

"I'm being serious here!" she stamped her foot.

"Let me see jour back," Icy instructed.

She did as he said. A few seconds after she did that, she could feel his cold digits on her exposed flesh.

"Do you know what to do?" Cyndi asked.

"I'm no medic but I can do somezhing as simple as zis," he replied. "Jou simply apply ze chemical to zis…" He picked up a cotton ball and studied it. "Fluffy zhing, right?"

"Yes."

"I vill try to be as gentle as possible. At least zhey aren't too deep or I vould recommend jou to go to ze hospital."

She said nothing back to him. Cynthia kept one hand on towel that exposed her front and placed her hand on the sink to prepare herself for the sting of the peroxide. For a brief second, she looked into the bathroom mirror and caught sight of him moistening the cotton ball.

"Look at vhat he did to jour soft, smooth skin…" Random said mournfully. "I hope zhey von't turn into scars."

"As long as I don't pick the scabs, I think I'll be okay," said Cynthia. The strong, pungent odor of the alcohol solution gave her a tiny headache. "At least I'm not bleeding everywhere, that's the important thing."

Then he pressed the moistened cotton ball against one of her wounds. She cringed, dropping the towel to the shaggy mat beneath her feet. Both of her hands settled on the sink, gripping it tightly due to the burning on her back.

"Did I do zat?" the jack-o-lantern face wondered with a big frown. "I'm sorry, Cyndi, I didn't mean to hurt jou."

"No, it's fine, it's just the peroxide that makes it hurt a lot," she sighed. "Keeping cleaning them, please. My maternal great-great grandmother was a tough, Russian farmer and I have her genes in me. I think I can soldier through this."

"Good because I have to clean out seven more of zhese zhings," said Hothead.

"By all means, continue."

As he dabbed the same wound repeatedly, the pain lessened. Despite the fact this was his more boisterous personality treating her injuries, he was surprisingly gentle. In fact, Cyndi even began to relax.

"I don't zhink ve ever discussed jour lineage," Icy said, initiating a conversation to take her mind off any discomfort. He threw away the cotton ball that was saturated with crusted and wet blood. "From vhat jou just said earlier, jour maternal side is Russian. Vhat else are jou?"

"A big part of my father's side is Irish," she said. "Besides being Irish and Russian, I have some Belgian and Scottish blood too. I might also be Swedish but that's just a family rumor." The things Starscream said to her earlier on hadn't left the sanctity of her mind. "What about you, Blitzwing? Does your species have different kinds of lineages and whatnot?"

"As jou have seen, zhere are ze earth bound kind and ze fliers," he answered. "Vithin zhose two main groups, zhere are subspecies if jou vill. I'm ze only one of my kind for example." He started on a new puncture wound. "Technically, I am a seeker in a certain sense but I'm my own species because of ze vay I vas reconstructed."

He was being rather open with her in contrast to what Starscream suggested to her. However there was something she wanted to ask him now that they were talking.

"Can I ask you something else?" Cyndi asked.

"Vhy not?" Blitzwing smirked.

"When I was with Starscream earlier, he told me you two are related. He said you and him are brothers but you disowned each other. Is he telling the truth? Please don't lie to me."

She looked back into the mirror so she could get a glance at his face. When she did that, she could see he was staring back into the mirror as well. His face appeared to be solemn and heavy.

"Vhat he told jou is actually true," he nodded his helm.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Don't be. Ve simply do our own zhings and go our separate vays. I vas going to vait until after I vas finished treating jou to discuss vhat vent on between jou and him but I suppose it von't hurt at zis point."

"Alright."

"Vhat did he tell jou?" Hothead interrogated.

"Nothing much. He only told me that little bombshell and suggested I should become a spy for Megatron. I hate to believe or admit it but I think he saved my life with that suggestion."

"He's a liar and a trickster. He'll make jou feel so good, confident and sure about jourself. Then he'll stab jou in ze back. I hope jou realize zat, Cyndi."

"I know, I know. He is sly and I will keep that in mind. Of course I trust you more than him. You saved me from him."

"I don't like vhat he did… He hurt jou like zis and zhen helped jou. I don't know vhat's going on but I know he's got somezhing planned. Vhen it is time for jou to serve Megatron, I vant jou to keep close to me and stay avay from him. He vill rip jour processor out and set it on fire."

"Don't worry yourself about me too much… I know that I must act smartly. But what do you think about him suggesting spying?"

"I zhink it is a certainly viable idea," said Icy. "Yet I'm still very skeptical and suspicious of vhy he vould help jou. Don't fall into zat trap. Don't allow him to poison jour mind…"

She was fully aware of how much of a threat Starscream was to her both physically and psychologically. The woman knew what he was capable of. At the same time though, he sounded so convincing. Even though he had hurt her and been cruel to her, after he had suddenly seemed to have a personality swap, she couldn't help to not feel grateful and indebted to him. Not only that, he had shed light on some skeletons that Cynthia believed were hidden inside her love's closet. What was especially maddening and consuming was this mysterious femme that he had referred to.

Cynthia wasn't going to turn against Blitzwing. But she was going to look into him more. She hoped he wouldn't mind.


	37. Demise of Liberty

**Girlies, thank you much for the reviews :) Okay, for this chapter... I'm really dragging with including the Autobots in this story but I promise that they will have a more marked role in later chapters. Pinky swear! They will have an itsy-bitsy scene in this chapter though. This is a weird chapter, I'll admit it but it was pretty amusing to write. Please enjoy it!**

Chapter 37 Demise of Liberty

(July 4th – 3:30pm, apartment)

"_…we plan on having festivities to celebrate this year's Fourth of July that should be fun for the whole family. To top off the merriment, we will have a display of fireworks…_"

Cynthia folded her arms across her chest as she watched the news report. Her eyes rolled in her orbits as she gazed on the TV screen, half paying attention and half zoning out. Normally, she would've been excited for the Fourth of July but this year, she was completely indifferent, possibly even loathing toward its presence.

The month-long trial was almost complete. All they had to do was wait until the next day and then report to Megatron so they could be initated into his servitude. Technically speaking, this was the Preston siblings' last true day of independence. From now on, they were Megatron's property; all because she had fallen for his warrior. Their lives were to be dictated and governed by an entity bent on subduing their race.

Weeks earlier, she wasn't really bothered by it since Cynthia was just grateful she and her siblings were given a second chance at life. But now that the day of reckoning was at hand and circling above them like a great white targeting a seal, she couldn't help to not feel morose and even angry at this. Since the beginning of the month, her mood had soured significantly. She was far more irritable in contrast to her slow to anger tendencies and naturally placid disposition.

The phone next to her began to ring. She only let it ring once before she picked it up, pressing the 'talk' button.

"Hello," she said briefly.

"Baby, hello!" her mother, Helen, chirped happily.

Cynthia moaned internally. Sometimes, her mother was so ditsy and sunny it was almost sickening. She had a feeling that if Random ever became his own separate being and turned into a Human, he and Helen would be soulmates.

"Hi, Mom," she answered. "How're you?"

"Smashing, honeybunch," the elder woman replied. "Why do you sound like such a frownie brownie on this happy day? It is the Fourth of July! You always loved this day! Even when you were a little girl, you loved sitting on a blanket and watching the fireworks light up the night sky…"

"I'm just sleepy, that's all. I haven't been sleeping well for the past few days."

"Well, you ought to drink a nice, warm glass of milk. You used to do that until you were ten…"

"Mom, really?"

Cynthia felt as if she was being deconstructed into an infant. Every single one of her incoming and outgoing phone calls were being screened by both Blitzwing and Lockdown. Chances were that one of them was always monitoring what was going on. The twenty three year old wasn't particularly in the mood to have her tender years being exploited for humor by either of the inorganics.

"It's just a suggestion, Cyndi," her mother said. "It worked wonders for you. You were always such a sweet, even tempered little girl. Your sister, Amanda, was a completely different story on the other hand…" She paused. "Anyway, let's focus on the present! I called to discuss something with you."

"What is it?" Cynthia wondered.

"Family vacation! Your father and I have been talking about going on vacation this year and we certainly plan on dragging our three children along with us. You and your brother and sister need to get out of that city. I will not stand for it any longer!"

Perfect. She was going to have to tell Megatron she was going on a vacation already. That was all she needed to tell her new employer.

"When were you thinking about going and where do you have in mind?" Cyndi said.

"Most likely South Carolina," Helen revealed. "Your father is looking into renting out this house on an island that is almost right between the Georgia and South Carolina state lines. The island begins with a 'D' I do believe and I can't really pronounce it too well."

"That sounds nice. You are aware of the giant cockroaches and that beastly humidity..?

"I can ignore the bugs as long as I get a nice tan. It's been cloudy and a little chilly in New York."

"Okay. When will we be going?"

"Your father is working on a case here at home but he should be done within the next three weeks or a month, Lord willing. You know your old ex, Wes', father?"

"Yes, he's a taxidermist. Isn't his name Matthew?"

"Yes. Well, apparently, he got into a little squabble of some sort with that poor old farmer, Mr. Schramm, who lives a few miles out of Greenvale. Your father is serving as Mr. Larkson's attorney. After he's done with his case, we're going on vacation."

"Nice. My ex's dad and my dad teaming up. Boy, that has to be awkward. Alright, keep us updated on that, Mom."

"You bet your little toosh I will keep you updated because you're coming. I suggest you buy a new bathing suit, Cynthia. I promise that we'll have fun on this vacation… I'll let you go, I'm sure you and your siblings are planning to do something fun for the Fourth today."

"Yeah, we were just discussing it."

"Alright. Have fun and be safe, honey. I love you! Extend my love to Amanda and Darien too."

"Love you too, Mom. Tell Dad I said 'hi'."

"I will. And try to cheer up, Cynthia. It is so unbecoming of a beautiful, young, civilized lady such as yourself… Bye!"

There was a click, signaling that Mrs. Preston had hung up. Cynthia shook her head miserably and turned off her own phone. She set it down on the coffee table.

"Mom, you have no idea what's going on," she grumbled softly. "I wish I could tell you everything…"

She had to get rid of this grievous misery. Now she started to feel like Amanda when they first began their trial. For some odd reason, she was suddenly struck with the urge to do something she thought she needed to induldge in more often.

Cynthia vacated her seat on the couch and walked into the kitchen. She saw her purse that was hanging on the back of one of the chairs and grabbed it. For a few moments, she fished through her purse and brought her wallet out. Perusing through it, she discovered she had fifty dollars in it.

"Good enough."

Then she exited the kitchen and headed towards the doormat. She slipped on a pair of yellow flip-flops. Cyndi turned to the door and placed her hand on the knob.

"I'll be back in an hour at max," she called out.

Almost as if on cue, Amanda rushed out of her room. She stopped just short of her sister. The blonde pulled her ear buds out of her canals with the song '_Americano_' playing.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I'm going out to get something that will make this Fourth of July bearable for me," said Cynthia. "I'm taking your car."

"If you're taking my car, I'm going with you." Amanda lowered the volume of her voice. "Blitzwing's in my room looking through my music collection. He's occupied so I want to escape while I still can. Let's ditch him and Darien."

"Darien can hold his own against Blitzwing so I agree…"

The two could hear Blitzwing suddenly break out into song in Amanda's room. Judging by the shrill pitch of the voice, they immediately knew it was Random.

"_I like big butts and I cannot lie! Jou ozher brozhers cannot deny zat vhen a girl vakes in vith an itty bity vaist and zat round zhing is in jour face, jou get SPRUNG..!_"

"Let's get out now," Amanda urged.

(fifteen minutes later…)

"A liquor store?" Amanda narrowed her gaze.

"If you and Darien be really good, I'll let you have some," said Cynthia. "I'm entitled to it. Today is my last day of freedom and I plan on getting drunk. I'll be right back."

Grabbing her purse, Cyndi opened up the driver's side door and stepped out. Closing it behind her, she walked up onto the sidewalk and then into the wines and spirits distributor.

"What's wrong with her?" Lockdown asked. "She's been acting really mean lately."

"She's finally getting stressed out over the reality we have to see Megatron tomorrow," Amanda guessed. "She won't talk to anyone really. She's been sleeping on the couch for the past few nights too but she hasn't gotten into any fights with Blitzwing as far as I know. I'm sure I would've known if they did get into one. We'd probably hear it all too."

"Plain and simple, she's just straight out annoyed by him if you ask me. He is like her shadow and he hardly ever leaves the apartment. When he does leave, it's always with her. I can't say that I blame her."

"I pity her…"

Mandy stirred in the front passenger seat. She slouched in her seat, feeling at ease and comfortable. A month earlier, she wouldn't be able to do this at all.

Surprisingly enough, the young woman found out she didn't really hate Lockdown anymore. At first, she couldn't believe it herself but it became evident to her when she didn't feel so hostile towards him. She supposed this came to be since she had interacted with him on a daily basis. He had shuttled her to and from work and social outings she went out on with her friends. When she couldn't stand Blitzwing anymore, she went out into the lot to talk to him.

For some reason, Amanda felt as if she could trust him to get anything done for her. She knew this was potentially deadly thinking yet at the same time, she disregarded it. Earlier, she hated him with every fiber of his being and now she happily and willingly conversed with him. The blonde didn't really have a solid idea of what he thought of her but she certainly had a foundation of thoughts about him.

What really startled her about herself regarding the bounty hunter was a thing she was dead set on repressing. When she looked at him, he no longer looked coarse and ugly like she saw him earlier. Now when she looked at him, he somehow appeared attractive. Lockdown still seemed rugged and rough but Amanda saw it was starting to appeal to her. She had to admit the tattoo-like markings on his white faceplate were intimidating looking and made him look like some sort of soul-hunting demon from Hell itself. Normally, she was repelled by creepy and borderline grungy appearances; now she loved them.

When she talked to him, she found herself smiling more often and being more friendly and open. Mandy wondered if this was Stockholm Syndrome tightening its grip on her mind but she doubted it at the same time. She had given him a chance, albeit reluctantly, and she was massively enjoying the results. The only downside of it was that she felt like she was turning into Cynthia when she first started associating with Blitzwing. And she knew what that had metamorphosed into…

"I know I probably can't trust you but I feel as if have to tell you about something…" she spoke, breaking the silence.

"You're probably right," he chuckled. "But roll the dice and take a gamble."

That was another feature she admired about him. Without him knowing it, he knew how to make her smile.

"Fine, I'll take a chance," she grinned. Her smile then faded without warning. "Do you remember the night when Cynthia was abducted by Starscream?"

"How could I not?" he said. "Blitzwing was screaming into my comm when he picked up Cynthia, telling me about it… What about it exactly, Blondie?"

"I noticed she had small bruises running up along the length of her body. She also had some bruises around her lower back."

"Starscream? He probably rough-housed her."

"I don't think so. Starscream give her eight puncture wounds and I'm sure those bruises would've looked a lot worse if he gave them to her. Besides, the ones I saw looked like they were a few days old."

There was an uneasy pause. Lockdown immediately assumed who the bot was that gave her those bruises.

"Blitzwing?" he offered. "I don't seem him hurting her though."

"I have never seen him hit her or try to hurt her," Amanda confirmed. "He's always lovey-dovey with her. But I don't know what goes on in her bedroom when the door closes." She paused, remembering when she was spying on her sister and Blitzwing earlier. "Okay, actually I do know but I don't like to think about it or talk about it really. I didn't want to mention the bruises to Cyndi because he was outside the bathroom door, listening to everything that was going on when I was trying to clean her wounds."

"So you think he gave her the bruises…"

"Yes. I think he's trying to get freaky with my sister. I haven't been spying on them because I don't want to know what they do when it's time to turn in for the evening." That was a lie. "All I know is, they share a bed."

"I don't doubt it."

"I'm afraid he's going to hurt her."

"He won't. If he really wanted to become intimate with her, she would be electrocuted to death. Cybertronian courtship is simply deadly for organics."

"Okay, I didn't need to know that, thank you very much…" She shook her head, sifting her bob. "All I need is more nightmare fuel."

"She's coming, you better shut your mouth."

True to his words, Amanda could see Cynthia walk over to the disguised Cybertronian. In her right hand, she was clutching a brown bag that was double bagged with plastic. There was a frown on her face and more than anything else, she looked like she was extremely serious and tense.

"So…" Amanda said as her sister got back into the vehicle. "What did you get?"

"A big bottle of red wine," Cynthia replied briefly, not bothering to even give the name of the brand. "It cost me all the money I had in my wallet for one bottle. It better be good, that's all I can say."

"Are you sure you want to be doing that?" Lockdown said. "Being overenergized and angry at the same time is not a safe combination."

"I'm lucky I'm not an alcoholic like my great uncle Eustace. Now let's head back home so we can figure out what to do tonight."

(Autobot base – 6:00pm)

Sari's face lit up when she watched the TV that was set up in the Autobot's recreation room. The news was on once again as it had been earlier in the day. This time, the news reporter was down at a park with throngs of people in the background, soaking up the summer atmosphere and enjoying the air of celebration. All that activity called to the little red-haired girl, making her squirm in her seat in gleeful anticipation.

"Bee!" she yelled. "Bumblebee, I know what I want to do tonight!"

She jogged over to the five Autobots who were huddled together, obviously looking as if they were discussing something. With a big smile still on her face, she closed the gap between her and her giant friends. Sari leaned affectionately up against her guardian's leg. Her head rested against it a second later.

Bumblebee looked down when he felt someone touch him. The little yellow Autobot smiled when he saw it was his charge and friend. He lowered his servo to the ground, obliging her to step up so he could include her in on things too. Without a moment to lose, she did that exact action and Bumblebee lifted her up.

"What's going on, guys?" she asked with a raised brow.

"We were just discussing the game plan for today's festivities," Ratchet duly reported. "We've been thinking it might possibly be good to be out and about in the city. Those crazy Humans that shot into Sumdac Tower haven't been caught yet and not only that, the 'Cons are still running free."

"There's a healthy chance that while everyone runs out to go and play, the scum get to work," Prowl noted. "No one will expect it really while there's so much fun and excitement going on."

"Yeah, Decepticons would ruin a party," Sari obstinately folded her arms across her chest.

"I'm not surprised either," Bulkhead muttered. He looked to Optimus. "What do you say we do, Boss?"

"Some of us should stay down at the park and monitor things and the rest of us should roam around the city and be on the lookout for anything odd," said Optimus. "That's the wisest thing we should do in my opinion."

"Can I go down to the park with Bumblebee?" Sari begged. "I really, really want to go down there and not be stuck on a boring patrol!" She batted her eyelashes at the head Autobot. She displayed the best puppy dog eyes she could muster to assure her chances of victory. "Pretty please, Prime? I'll behave!" The little girl lifted up her pinky. "I pinky swear!"

Optimus was unphased by her exhibition but he really didn't see any harm in her going down to the park to enjoy the celebration. As long as she had someone watching her and keeping her out of any mischief, he'd allow it.

"Fine, you and Bumblebee may go down to the park," he permitted.

Sari giggled happily. Bumblebee wore a content grin, feeling a little relieved he wasn't stuck with patrolling. At least he'd have a little time off from his Autobot duties and spend it with his organic partner in crime.

Then the young Prime lifted a digit. A sly smirk graced his faceplate.

"Someone needs to watch after our two youngest and most spirited comrades," he resumed. "Ratchet, would you do the honor of looking after them while they enjoy themselves at the park?"

Ratchet seemed as equally enthused as Sari and Bumblebee. His already perpetually grumpy expression hardened. However, he wasn't in the mood to debate orders. Not only that, he wasn't too keen for patrol work. Sometimes he believed he was getting too old for those kinds of things either way.

"I suppose…" he drawled.

"Just try to not crash the party, okay Ratchet?" said Bumblebee. "Nobody likes a party pooper!"

"So, I guess that means that we three are doing patrol…" Bulkhead deduced.

"Fine by me," Prowl remarked.

The ninja bot transformed into his vehicle mode and sallied forth on his duties for the evening.

"Alright, so we know what to do," Optimus nodded. "We'll all contact one another within an hour to give updates on the situation. If there's anything suspicious or if you need help with anything, don't be hesitant to contact… Keep your optics peeled. Autobots, transform and roll out!"

The remaining Autobots adopted their vehicle modes and began to drive away. As Bumblebee morphed, he maneuvered Sari safely into the driver's seat and gently buckled her up. The youngest Autobot drove off towards the direction of the park with Ratchet following not too far behind.

"Bee, whatever happened to that girl?" Sari asked. Her mind suddenly drifted to the woman who had been fought over by Starscream and Blitzwing months earlier. She was reminded of the incident as she could see one of the cathedral's spires in the distance.

"What girl?" he replied in confusion. "You gotta be more specific, Sari."

"That lady who got attacked by Decepticons at the church. Wasn't she kidnapped by them after Christmas too?"

"I don't know. We haven't seen her around lately. We also haven't seen the 'Cons around either since she got plucked up. Prowl seems to be really suspicious of her though…"

"Prowl's always thinking too much about things like that. He can be so down sometimes."

"Hey, I think I'm starting to think something fishy is going on as well. They let her go after they held her for one day. Then Starscream and Blitzwing were fighting over her. Blitzwing let her go rather easily too."

"Bee, do you think she's with them?" Sari sounded genuinely surprised by his reasoning. "She must've been brainwashed to work for them!"

"I need to see it to believe it. I just hope it's not true."

(peninsula – 8:15pm)

Darien looked over nervously at his eldest sister. She was sitting next to him on the blanket they had thrown across the ground so they could enjoy the fireworks without getting their clothes dirty. He watched her remove the plastic bag that was wrapped tenderly around the brown paper bag. Cynthia then grabbed the bottle neck and pulled the wine out of the bag.

"Sis…" he said carefully. "What's that you got there?"

"Wine," she answered. "If you be good enough, you can have some. But just remember this is my bottle. Cyndi's going to let loose a little tonight."

"Hey, I am going to have some too," Amanda joined in, moving away from the precipice of the cliff. Deciding that looking over the lake was boring, she rejoined her brother and sister. "I don't like red wine but I want a little blush."

"Coast is clear," Lockdown said suddenly. He emerged from under the cover of the foliage. "Luckily for us, no one is else going to be joining us for the fireworks this evening. But I'll still be on the lookout for anyone who'll crash our scene."

Amanda looked away from her siblings and focused solely on the bounty hunter. Cynthia could see the smile on her sister's face as she looked at him.

"Well, hopefully, it'll be just the five of us tonight," she said to him. "Where's Blitzwing at? I know I saw him go off with you to make sure no one was in the area."

"I don't know," Lockdown didn't seem too concerned about his whereabouts. "If he doesn't show up within the next ten minutes, I'll get a hold of him on his comm."

"Would anyone like the first sip?" Cynthia frowned dourly. She bit down on the cork and proceeded to wrench it out with her jaws. After a minute of struggling, she managed to pop it out. Cynthia spat out the cork into her hands.

"No, thank you," Darien raised his hands in a surrendering posture.

"Give me some!" Amanda swiped the bottle. She brought the bottle up to her mouth. Then she tilted it back and swallowed a mouthful. As soon as it hit her tongue, she almost coughed and spewed it everywhere. "Oh, this is nasty!"

"More for me," Cyndi said as she took it back.

"Guess who's back!" a jolly voice declared from the brush.

Blitzwing popped out from the treeline, with the Random persona wearing his usual huge, toothy smile. He walked over to the group of Humans and sat down with them. The triple changer sat directly behind Cyndi and pulled her into his lap. He kissed the back of her head and hugged her close.

All the Human did was take a big, long, gulp of wine. It was going to be one Hell of a long night.

(forty-five minutes later)

"_God bless America, my home sweet home..! From the mountains, to the praries, to the oceans white with foam, God bless America, my sweet home!_"

"Oh, zis is so fun!" Random clapped his servos. "Zis singing contest is so fun, Cyndi! Jou should drink zat alcohol more often so ve can sing ze night avay!"

Darien and Amanda were looking at their sister with a huge amount of concern. Cynthia had only started drinking forty-five minutes earlier but she was already inebriated. She wasn't a very frequent drinker which had contributed her to being quite lightweight and easy to get drunk. As far as the boy and girl could remember, they didn't ever recall seeing her drunk before. Before she was drinking, she was angry and tense and now she was singing and upbeat. Regardless, they couldn't help but to not feel a little uncomfortable.

"Wow, that stuff works like magic," Lockdown smirked. "You should give her some of that stuff everytime she gets miserable."

"Shucks, I have an awful singing voice," Cynthia slapped a hand across her face. Her voice was slurred. "I sound like a dying cow!"

"If it makes jou feel any better, Starscream has ze vorst singing voice in ze universe," said Blitzwing. "In fact, I zhink his singing is deadlier zhan his null rays!"

Cynthia guffawed at his joke. With the wine bottle still in her hand, she brought it up to her face to drink more. After taking a few gulps, she sighed heavily and lengthily and set it down on the ground.

"You're so funny," she said in an admiring tone. "You are a very funny person, you know that? I love that about you. And you should be so happy that you have me because I am the only girl in the world who would go to bed with a refrigerator!" She laughed loudly. "Or am I just that damn pathetic?" Then she shook her head. "I don't want to even think about it because it hurts my brain now…"

"Oh, zhank jou!" Random said happily. "Jou're not pazhetic at all, Cyndi. I never zhought I vould squeeze a Human femme's aft before but now I'm quite guilty of zat! Come, let's sing some more! I have ze perfect song in mind for all of us to sing as one!"

"I don't sing," Lockdown said miserably.

"I've learned to be afraid of you when you ask me to sing with you," said Darien.

"And this is all getting much too mushy," Amanda announced, getting up from the blanket. "The last thing I want to see is a drunken makeout session."

"Zhen to ze Pit vith all of jou!" Hothead barked. "Go some place else and I vill be staying here vith Cyndi!"

"Yeah, just go," Cyndi agreed sullenly. "I need some privacy with…" She giggled airily. "This big, sexy tank…"

"T-M-I!" Amanda's cheeks flushed deeply. "Lockdown, Darien, let's scoot."

"Right behind you, Blondie," the muscle car nodded. He donned his Earthy disguise and opened up his driver and front passenger doors. "We'll do you two lovebirds a favor. Call us whenever you're done being…frisky."

"Yeah, whenever that will be!" Cyndi trilled. "And good luck, Amanda! I saw the way you looked at him… Let me know how it goes and we can exchange stories! You are a big girl now!"

Amanda's color reddened even more and she felt like she turned into the sun. She hopped into the driver's seat with Darien getting in the passenger's.

Lockdown then drove off to find a spot where they could enjoy the fireworks in privacy. He had to admit he felt slightly crept out at Cynthia's displays of drunken, sultry affection. In fact, he was even somewhat secretly pleased it was going to be him, Amanda and Darien.

"Oh, there is a god!" Cynthia threw her arms up in glee. "I am alone with you… I feel like my mother sometimes because those two are always in my hair. I cannot wait until I either get my own house or they move out of that apartment!" Once more, she took another sip from the wine bottle. Cynthia exhaled heavingly and set it aside. "Did I ever tell you how much I love you?"

"Maybe Lockdown's right," Random teased. "Maybe jou should get over-energized more often! Jou're much cuddlier zhen! Jou seem to be in a better mood too. Jou vouldn't let me hold jou in my arms vhen ve vere on our vay here and jou vent vith jour siblings and Lockdown."

"I need to discuss something with you, buddy boy." She poked him in his belly. "I don't want any lies coming from you."

Icy replaced Random. He raised his brow plate and eyed her inquisitively. For a moment, he glanced over at the wine bottle that was the cause of her altered behavior. Then he returned his gaze to her.

"Vhat vould I hide from jou?" Blitzwing asked. "Jou know jou can talk to me."

His face contorted into an expression of utter surprise as she actually glared at him when he said those words. Blitzwing didn't know how to react for a moment and stared back at her in confusion.

Cynthia moved away from him and stood up. Folding her arms across her chest, the organic glowered at him.

"Are you sure about that?" she insinuated. "You know, Starscream told me something else that you haven't been honest about with me. You know darn well that I don't like it when you lie to me! I want you to tell me the truth about one thing and one thing only, Blitzwing…"

"Cynzhia, I vill tell ze truth but I zhink zat perhaps jou should use moderation," Icy advised. "I don't zhink it is vise to be in such a state vhile jou have to see Megatron tomorrow."

Her mood instantly soured even further when he mentioned Megatron's name. She glared at him, looking like she was ready to slug him in his faceplate.

"Do not even mention him or I will smash this bottle across your big, thick skull!" she almost screamed at him. "I don't want to think about it or talk about it! This is my last day of freedom and there's nothing you can do to stop it from being so! I want to drink so I can drink until I'm puking! I have slowly but surely been losing my mind for the past month and I need a release! You better focus on the question I have for you, that's all I know!"

Blitzwing didn't know how to react for a moment. Then Hothead had an idea while he was still lingering within the helm.

He overthrew Icy and grabbed her wine bottle. Cynthia fumbled for it drunkenly.

"Give it to me!" she yelled. "I paid fifty dollars for it and I intend on using it all up! What the Hell is it with you and destroying the things I pay for? You are so mindlessly destructive!"

Ignoring her drunken pleas, he tossed the bottle. It sailed through the air and fell over the cliff. The wine bottle plummeted to the waters of the lake below and was swallowed up by the waves.

The Human gawked at what her Cybertronian lover had done. Shock had ruled her for a few seconds before inebriated and blind anger reclaimed her. Cynthia gritted her teeth and growled deeply at what he had done.

"Who is she?" she demanded, cutting straight to the chase.

"Who are jou talking about, jou crazy, drunken femme?" Hothead yelled back. "Vhy don't jou give me a name and I could explain it to jou!"

"You know damn well who I'm talking about! Starscream told me all about you and her… There was some Decepticon girl you fell in love with a long time ago. She was your girlfriend or something like that…" She pointed a finger at him. "I told you about my sad excuse for an ex and you never told me about yours! You almost killed mine when I told you not to! So if I ever come across that lady, I'm going to tear her in two! And I don't care if she's a robot just like you, I'll do it!"

"I vill tear Starscream a new one vhen I see him tomorrow…"

"Forget Starscream right now! Focus on me, Blitzwing…"

"I don't have to tell jou anyzhing right now because jou're not jourself at ze moment," said Icy. "I'm not telling jou a zhing vhile jou're acting so irrationally and immaturely. Vhen jou have a clearer mind, I vill tell jou about zat little zhing Starscream disclosed to jou."

Blitzwing could practically see her get even angrier than she already was. Her hands curled into fists so tight that he could see veins pop out and throb. Cynthia was even starting to sweat a little.

"I dare jou to hit me," Hothead warned venomously. "If jou hit me, I'll strike back at jou tvice as hard. I am not afraid to slap some sense into jou if I have to. I'll slap zat stupor right out of jou!"

"I am not Blitzwing, drunk!"

He rolled his optics at her sentence mix-up.

"Yes, jou are," Random cooed, standing up and moving closer to her. "Jou're as drunk as a skunk! Hahaha, zat rhymes!"

"Shut up!" she hissed.

She attempted to throw a weak punch at him but it was poorly aimed and launched. Cynthia ended up stumbling embarrassingly into his outstretched arms since he easily imagined her falling onto her face. His arms clamped around her, forbidding her from fighting back.

"Jou need to behave jourself," Hothead said sternly. "Jou treated me like a sparkling and now I get to treat jou like one."

"Let go of me!" she flailed in his arms pathetically. "I can still fight!"

"Just try. Jou sit vith me and enjoy zhese firevorks zat ve came to see or I vill knock jour lights out!"

"Why won't you tell me about her? What is the big deal? I am honest with you and I demand to be treated the same way!"

"Cyndi…"

He sighed and shook his helm.

"I vas going to tell jou about her in time," Icy explained. "I didn't vant to reveal it too early to jou for fear jou vould be driven avay from me. I feared zat perhaps it might discourage jou from seeing me. I vanted to solidify our trust and relationship a little more as vell."

Cynthia then laughed. She ran her hand up and down his face and cupped his chin in it.

"You're such a sweetheart," she crooned. "I won't leave you and you know it. Why didn't you just say so earlier? You found out about mine in no time at all!" The depressants in the alcohol had watered down her fury now that he gave her an answer of some sort. She cuddled up to him, attempting to get comfy with him. "Can I ask what the name of the lucky girl was?"

"Her name vas Blackarachnia," he said with heavy disdain, "and hopefully, jou vill never have ze misfortune of crossing paths vith her."

"Why so..?"

"Because I heard zat she is on zis planet."

"Jou don't need to vorry about her at all," Hothead said confidently, "because I vashed my servos of her. She is a demon and I no longer vant any part of her. She broke my spark and used me."

"I have someone else who is far more sveeter, funnier and more stunning zhan her," Random grinned. "Even vhen jou're scary and angry, I still love jou! Jou don't need to vorry about her eizher because she vouldn't dare to lay a finger on jou, my drunken love!"

The brunette wore a big, proud smile. She sat up and planted a kiss on his lips. Then she slouched into his lap.

"If you ever leave me, I'll kill you," she said lightheartedly.

"Right back at jou," the black and red face chuckled.

(…)

The reflection of the pyrotechnics shone brilliantly in the eyes and optics of the three spectators. On the lake, there were a few boats that were shooting off fireworks into the night sky. A dizzying myriad of purples, greens, reds, blues, whites and oranges dazzled and then sizzled opulently. It was all so bright that it almost looked liked that the sun was ready to rise on the horizon. The grand finale hadn't even commenced with its debut and the show was so magnificent and beautiful so far.

Darien and Amanda sat crosslegged next to each other, enjoying the fireworks as if they were reduced to having the minds of children. They were completely absorbed by the display and they had virtually forgotten about the concern they had for their incapacitated sister and her temporarily stunted cognitive capabilities. The two had trusted Blitzwing to look after her and chose to forget about what they had seen and heard before Lockdown drove them away. As long as they observed the fireworks, they were reminded of their happier, more innocent days and that was a treat in itself considering what they would have to face tomorrow.

Lockdown was appreciating the splendor of the multicolored lights himself but not at an equal degree to the siblings. He had to admit it was peaceful yet invigorating to watch them explode in a vivid flowering and then hear and watch them simmer as they faded. Like his Human charges, it helped him take his mind off stressful things.

"Oh, wow, that is gorgeous!" Amanda said happily.

He took note of the particular firework that had made her comment on it. It was pink and when it blossomed, it looked like a sunflower. Ever so slightly, he grinned, not exposing a wicked, toothy grin but a serene smile.

Earlier, he couldn't even stand the sight of her, let alone the sound of her voice. Now, he found himself actually enjoying her company. Lockdown had to admit he felt protective of her since he had transported her wherever she needed to go to. He had built up a fairly high tolerance to the Human and he had learned to respect her as she had come to realize he demanded respect himself. True, she could be annoying and overtly dramatic but the bounty hunter began to see past that. With each day that went by, he saw a girl who was still trying to adjust to life around her. Somewhat, he pitied her and he started sympathize with her fears more as he had grown accustomed to her.

"I can't believe I like her," he thought inwardly. "I actually like her now instead of hating her with a passion. Sure, she's a little odd and a bit of a drama queen but she's much more bearable now. My urge to kill her has ceased. She had actually behaved in contrast to what I expected…"

Amanda leaned back, resting her head against his knee guard. She was unaware of what she was reclining on.

The green and black bot smirked, realizing she was blind to her own actions. He raised his arm that was at his side and extended a pointer digit. Lockdown scratched crown of her cranium.

She reacted rapidly when this happened and she spun around, almost smashing her face into the guard.

"Woah, I didn't realize I was doing that!" she said, blushing. "Sorry about that!"

"No need for apologies, Mandy," he said neutrally.

Amanda looked away from him, feeling like she was going to burst into flames due to embarrassment. While her back was turned to him, she couldn't hold back a smile that displayed all her dimples and made her pale green eyes twinkle. She pulled her legs to her chest and giggled like a school girl on the inside.

"Yup, she likes me a bit too much," Lockdown thought. "Blondie, you're going to be in a world full of hurt… Don't even bother coming clean to me. I simply just don't feel what you feel…" He started to frown meditatively. "But why would I feel bad if I did tell you those things?"

* * *

><p><strong>I would very much appreciate it if you left a review. Lately, I've felt I haven't being doing very well with this fic and any constructive criticism is much appreciated so I can better myself. I don't know if it's me just being paranoid but I would prefer my readers to be honest as to what their opinions are so I can take them into consideration and make this better for everyone. Thanks for reading! :)<strong>


	38. Christening of Evil

**Thank you for the reviews guys :) I guess there're no problems with this story so it's safe to continue. So, we finally come to the moment of truth. You have no idea how long I've been waiting to end the whole month scenario and get on to a mini-saga that will span chapters 39-43 or 44. I promise that the next few chapters will be anything but dull. But the only problem is this boring bridging chapter. As usual, reviews are much loved and appreciated and please enjoy the update!**

Chapter 38 Christening of Evil

(July 5th – 8:00am)

"Come 'round, Cyndi!"

The first thing she heard was a voice calling to her. She felt someone slap her left check gently as if the person was trying to wake her up. As her senses came back to her slowly, she could feel that she was being held in someone's warm, soft arms; a contrast to what she was used to.

"She's waking up," Amanda whispered. "Stop slapping her, Darien. At least we don't have to pour water on her face."

At last, Cynthia opened up her eyes. When she revealed them to her brother and sister, they were bloodshot and she bore unsightly, unflattering bags beneath her eyes. The pained groan that came out of her parted lips further emphasized the fact she was suffering from the effects of a hangover.

"What…" Cyndi said in a gravelly voice. She cleared her throat and sat up, seeing that Darien was cradling her in his arms. "What's going on? Where am I? Why can't I remember anything?"

"You were so drunk last night," her brother said.

Instantly, Cynthia looked down at her body to see if her clothes were still on her. She sighed in relief and rubbed her temples. For a moment, she thought she was in her underwear and her bra that looked as if they were ready to fall off her frame in tatters. To see that she was in a t-shirt (that was moist with her drool), shorts and flip-flops, she felt as if she could breathe again.

"I am just so happy that I'm in my clothes," she shook her head. "I seriously cannot remember anything… I remember getting a little buzz and then singing songs. After that, it's all a blur." The eldest sibling in the trio wrinkled her nose. "What was I doing?"

"Oh, you should've seen the stuff you were doing," Amanda smiled wryly. "You were giving your honey lap dances and then you decided it was a good idea to hit on Lockdown."

Cyndi looked like she was completely aghast with what her sister had reported. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped steeper.

"No, you're lying!" she shook her head. "I'm not that much of a…floosy!"

"I'm serious," Amanda nodded. "I have it all recorded on my phone and I plan on posting it on YouTube for the whole world to see! It'll be a meme, just watch! 'Chick gives lap dances and flirts with alien robots'… I can see it now!"

"You will do no such thing! Give me your phone right now and I will delete every single second of it!"

"I'm joking!" Amanda laughed shortly. "Darien, Lockdown and I split when you started getting freaky with Blitzwing. We met up an hour later and you were passed out."

"Define 'freaky'!" She grasped her sister by the front of her shirt. "Was I wearing clothes when you found me?"

"For God's sake, yes!" Darien said, exasperated. "You were just drunk… We'll leave it at that."

Cyndi observed her surroundings, noticing she and her family members were in a forest. With effort, she stood up onto her feet, getting a little head rush simultaneously.

"Why are we in the woods?" she asked.

"Because we're seeing Megatron at any minute," Darien answered.

The girl turned around, seeing the entrance to the mine behind her. Standing at the mouth of the abandoned cave was Lockdown who was babysitting the organics. Mentally, she face-palmed herself for acting so blind and naïve due to the hangover she was warring with.

"How do I look?" she said.

"To be honest, horrible," Mandy said bluntly. "You look like, well, you were drunk and partying."

"Magnificent. What a way to be inducted into Megatron's service… Why didn't anyone stop me from drinking too much?"

"Because you were scary," said Darien. "No one wants to deal with you when you're angry, Sis."

They could feel a slight tremor in the earth. The three looked at each other for a moment, trying to see if someone could offer an explanation for this disturbance. Their answer was given to them seconds later when they saw Lugnut approach Lockdown from the darkness of the mine.

"Glorious Megatron commands you to enter," he motioned to the organics. "He will receive you now. Do not stall."

(…)

The three Humans were experiencing a painfully unpleasant bout of nostalgia as they walked down the same corridor they traversed through one month earlier. Back in June, they were terrified out of their minds and even now, they couldn't help to not feel anxious and fearful although they had an occupation chosen for themselves. The mere thought of Megatron throwing an evil glare at them made their blood turn to slush in their veins. All they wanted was to be welcomed by Megatron unceremoniously and then be allowed to leave and take a breather from confronting him. They even prayed he would forget about them altogether and they'd be spared of serving him. However, neither of the three saw it was likely that the head 'Con would let them off so freely considering how much of an issue it was.

Cynthia stared at Lockdown and Lugnut as they led the organics through the tunnel which led them to the mine's inner chambers. She flinched when she could hear a bat's wings beat at the air above her.

"So…" Amanda cleared her throat, "what exactly is going to happen?"

"What do you think is going to happen, fleshling?" Lugnut said shortly. "You will offer what you can to mighty Megatron and he will provide the final decision."

"Okay… Um, what'll happen if we do get accepted? Is the Decepticon symbol going to be tattooed onto our skin?"

"Since you are weak Humans, you wouldn't survive the branding…" The titanic Decepticon glanced over his shoulder to look the blonde in the eye. "However, a mark of some sort ought to be placed on you to remind you of your allegiance to Megatron." He cackled darkly. "Perhaps you should be branded just like the lot of us… Except for this unruly bounty hunting scum."

Amanda swallowed hard. She really, really hoped that wouldn't come to be. She was blessed to not be seriously pestered by acne and she took pride in her clear skin. Imagining the mark of the Decepticon etched into her flesh made her spine tingle uncomfortably.

"I think it would be a bad move on the other hand," Lockdown cut in. "They're offering themselves as spies, right? Then what better disguise to wear than to not bear the crest at all?"

Lugnut grumbled grudgingly at the clever mech's opinion.

"Megatron and Megatron alone will decide what to do with these weaklings," the hefty behemoth bitterly reminded.

"It's going to be real fun working with you, Titanic," Amanda jeered.

"Mandy, shut up," her sister scolded her. "We don't need this now."

"What did you just call me, insect?" Lugnut halted in his footsteps and faced the Human who had taunted him.

"Drop it," Darien urged.

"Titanic!" Mandy repeated defiantly. "You heard me!"

Lockdown jabbed Lugnut in his back with his hooked servo. The zealous 'Con turned his helm to face his inorganic company.

"Leave her be," he said. "She doesn't know when to shut her mouth."

"She must learn if she is to become our ally," Lugnut countered. "If Megatron wishes to dispose of these pitiful creatures, I will happily kill the fair-haired one." He turned his unnerving gaze onto Cynthia. "And she will be next."

Cyndi only frowned and chose not to get into a squabble with him.

"Are we done, children?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"Thank you, Cynthia," Lockdown nodded. "Once again, you are the voice of reason. If that fat tanker won't take you to Megatron, I will. We're almost at the end of the hall." He pointed to an opening that had to have been a few hundred feet away from where they stood. "Moving on…"

Lockdown led the three Humans to the light. Growling in displeasure, Lugnut followed close behind, being mindful to not squash the organics despite the fact he really wanted to.

A minute later, the siblings found themselves back in the fateful room that they had stood in a month earlier. In the middle of the room there stood Megatron, Starscream and Blitzwing. The triple changer had regained his true height and this was particularly evidenced by the form of Sumdac who stood at his metal boots with the shrink ray in his hands. The four had been patiently waiting to welcome in their newest comrades.

"Ah, you all appear to be in decent spirits," Megatron acknowledged. "I see that is all fair and well. But perhaps you are all masters of disguising visible signs of fear? Correct me if I am wrong."

"You're terrifying," Mandy admitted. "But we must do this…"

"You were the one who put up the most fight and spunk about being absorbed into my ranks. Blitzwing or Lockdown must've broken you to make you bend to reality and accept it."

"I'm not that dumb, sir."

"Oh, I see your sister's manners finally rubbed onto you as well. It's about time."

Cynthia almost completely ignored Megatron unintentionally as she studied Blitzwing. Once more, she was an ant to him. She felt happy for him that he was himself again yet she also felt a little angry and robbed. Of course she felt both blessed and slightly plighted with his presence for the month but she was also terribly upset that she couldn't become particularly close to him. Now that he had been restored to his proper stature, she believed she was going to go through a withdrawl now, much like a drug addict deprived of their personal Satan. Already, she didn't know what she was going to do later on that evening. Or the next evening… Or the next evening after that.

Blitzwing smiled softly back at her, silently and tenderly accepting her presence in the room. He was massively relieved and pleased he was normalized but he already missed the things he could do in his minimized state. Already, he was concoting plans within his helm to swipe the Professor's device when no one was looking and make Cynthia melt into his arms again. Just the mere thought of going back to his cold, hard, lonesome berth was so unsatisfying and cruel.

"It is especially good to see that you are in fair spirits, Cynthia," Starscream shot a debonair smile at her. "I hope that you no longer hold ill will towards our last encounter. I know I am certainly ready to call a ceasefire for the hostility."

Blitzwing's serene grin shattered and he glared daggers at the seeker when he saw he was speaking to Cynthia. Starscream could almost sense the evil thoughts being directed towards him from his brother but he shrugged them off.

"I'm ready to bury the hatchet if you are," she said, feeling a little intimidated. "I know I certainly feel indebted to you considering you came up with the suggestion for Megatron."

Megatron raised a brow plate in surprise. Blitzwing growled like a bear being poked by a stick.

"You mean that Starscream was the one who helped you decide what to do for me?" he asked. "Last time I checked, he hated you."

Strategically, Cyndi avoided the latter sentence Megatron said. As far as she knew, it was still sensitive territory to traverse.

"He did," she confirmed. "Starscream suggested something to me and I had finally decided to use it because my siblings and I couldn't think of any other option."

"I had it in mind ze whole time!" Hothead jealously boasted. "I vas just vaiting to see if zhey could zhink of ozher options besides vhat I had in mind!"

"Down, boy," Starscream smirked. "Let's not spill energon while our new comrades are still trying to get used to things."

"Tell me what you have finalized on," the silver bot said. "Enough of this foolish, trivial rambling."

"Spies," Darien said, realizing it was best to not keep Megatron waiting, "we'll become spies for you."

"Think of it, Megatron," Cynthia picked up. "Who will expect us to serve you? Not many people in their right mind would serve the Decepticons…" She paused to recover the potential offensiveness she leaked out. "Of course, we had no choice but surely you understand where I'm coming from?"

Megatron meditatively placed a servo on his chin and contemplated over the matter. He was still perplexed and vexed that his second in command had actually assisted them in selecting a profession for the Decepticon cause. Although he found himself tolerating Cynthia at best, he admitted that she could be calculating, brave and cautious if the situation called for it. That, he saw, had good potential to be honed into legitimate and ultimately, useful espionage skills.

His optics flitted from Cynthia to her brother and sister who flanked her. They were common organics, blending in with the mainstream of the populace. One was an awkward, teenaged boy and the other two were blossoming, young women. When he looked at them, he didn't see or imagine them harboring a dark secret. They didn't even appear threatening.

Megatron then refocused his gaze onto the ring leader of the organic trio. When he looked into her eyes, he saw fear lurking within her. He knew that she was as terrified as confronting him the first time. As far as he was concerned, he had her before he he even decided on what to do…

"You will serve me well because you are afraid of me," he said, speaking directly to her, ignoring Amanda and Darien. "That and your devotion to your lover further binds you to me… Are you sure this is what you wish to do for me?"

"I can speak for all three of us," she said, "yes. We will serve you as spies. We have no other talents we can offer you. We're not mercenaries or geniuses. It's the least we can do besides being target practice."

Megatron laughed at that.

"Believe it or not, you and your siblings are a little above being used for target practice," the head Decepticon folded his servos together. "You are all deceitful, you know that? None of your fellow Humans nor the Autobots would suspect you of being in league with me… Cynthia, I am aware of your close encounters with them and how they may possibly be keeping you tucked away in the backs of their memory cores. So, you must be markedly cautious in their midst. If that is what you wish to be, then I can accommodate you accordingly."

"So…" Darien pressed warily. "Are we allowed to live?"

"My boy, you most certainly will live. You will live to serve me."

At the same time, the siblings felt dread and relief. They felt dread because none of them wished to have been forced to serve Megatron. The relief came from the revelation that their offer had been accepted and were allowed to keep their lives. If they had a greater range of choices to select from, they wouldn't be standing in his midst, getting ready to reluctantly pledge their allegiance to the mechanical monster to begin with.

"Spies," Megatron grinned, "my spies. I can assure you three that working for me is not a horrid death sentence granted that you play your cards wisely and discreetly." His gazed hardened on Cynthia. "Cynthia, I am hereby entrusting you to tutor and preside over your brother and sister. Since you are obviously the smartest and eldest one, I wish for you to keep them out of trouble and remind them of their place. I know you will do whatever is necessary to ensure my wishes."

"I understand," Cyndi said. She bit down on her tongue with force, trying her hardest to force back a stream of tears. Sorrowfully, she nodded her head at her new lord and master. "Amanda and Darien will listen to me. No offense to you, Megatron, but they are not as stupid as you perceive them to be. Trust me, they know to remain tight-lipped about the matter. No one will know of our servitude to you other than those in this room…"

"Very good, I shall hold you to your word and honor, Cynthia. Blitzwing is absolutely confident in your ability to keep this in the shadows and I must say I am finding myself in accordance with him."

"Master, they must be absorbed fully into our ranks," Lugnut reminded. "How shall we place our mark upon them?"

"I'm sorry, I'm not getting a tattoo!" Amanda said staunchly. "Please don't make us wear the Decepticon mark!"

Blitzwing looked at Megatron worryingly, hoping the organics wouldn't be touched by the purple seal. The marks from Starscream's claws had unfortunately turned into fading scars on Cynthia's flesh and he felt awful and powerless regarding not preventing that from happening. Imagining her with the Decepticon insignia on her made him so ill that he could almost smell the burning flesh.

"See, he's doing it again," Lockdown huffed. "I tried to tell Slag For Brains that branding the Humans would be a bad idea, particularly if they were to serve as spies for you, Megatron. If the Autobots were to suspect them of serving you and if they saw the marks upon them, then they would be caught. That in itself would unfold into a pleasant menagerie of events…"

The most powerful Cybertronian present could see the rather sane reasoning in Lockdown's argument. Very quickly, he found himself agreeing with Lockdown's cleverness. As he approved of the bounty hunter's sharp processor, Megatron had frowned upon Lugnut's impulse and sadistic desire to cause the Humans agony. If these organics didn't devote themselves to him, he'd allow the juggernaut to do what he pleased with them.

"Lugnut, you must learn to accept these three organics," Megatron instructed. "Whether you like or not, they are our allies now. I have allowed them to join us and you are to treat them as comrades. If I find any one of them dead, I will know who had committed such a crime and I will be severely displeased with you. If you are as loyal and devoted to me as you boast that you are, you will obey me and show them respect and civility. They must be welcomed and shown the ropes around here."

Lugnut grumbled but didn't do much of it. He lowered his helm steeply and bowed to Megatron.

"I hear and obey your word, Mighty Megatron," he said. "I will accept the Humans since it is your command."

"I don't need to be forced to be civil to our new friends," Starscream grinned. He knelt down to get a closer look at them. "Honestly, I didn't think you three would live to be accepted by Megatron, our leader. Consider it a great honor. When we finally subdue this planet, you three can become the rulers and answer only to him."

"Oh, I never thought of it that way," Amanda grinned. "I can be a queen?"

"Yes, if you serve your master well, he will make you one."

"Can I have diamond earrings, a ring with a topaz gem and a throne made of gold?"

"It can be done."

"Maybe this won't be so bad after all! I wouldn't mind being a queen at all!" Cynthia stepped on her sister's foot forcefully, making the blonde jump and yelp in pain. "Cyndi, what gives?"

For the entire time, Professor Sumdac said nothing. All he did was thrust his full attention onto the young Earthlings, studying their every single movement and listening intently to ever single word they uttered. Clearly, he could see the fear lying beneath their seemingly calm exteriors. Still, he regretted suggesting to Megatron that they could prove themselves useful but he also believed that they would have been slain without his intervention. Although he didn't know how exactly the siblings would react to being absorbed into the Decepticon ranks, what he did know was that they had to react quickly or else they would most likely perish.

"So, it has been finally decided," Megatron proclaimed. "Darien, Amanda, Cynthia… I hereby, formally welcome you into our little family. If you were actually Cybertronians, you'd receive the honorary Decepticon badge but Lockdown convinced me otherwise considering you are organic spies. So, our relationship must be built solidly upon words and mutual trust..." He paused for a second or two. "Now, I understand that there is reluctance in your hearts… No, I'm actually quite sure of it. Let me be clear to all three of you that I control you now. Yes, you may go about your lives as normal so that you don't stick out and make others suspicious of you. But you must also understand that when I am summoning you for your assistance or services, you better drop whatever you are doing and answer the call. I also still demand you three to remain quiet about your alliance to me. You also ought to stay away from those Autobots unless if I order you to get close to them. I will assume you're committing treason and I will kill you for fraternizing with the enemy. Have I made myself clear?"

"Crystal clear," Darien emphasized. "I'm no honor roll student in my class but I get it."

"Totally," Amanda said, folding her arms across her chest. "I'll be a good little minion because I love life too much! I'll try to be James Bond with breasts!"

"We understand," Cynthia said at last. "I will keep my brother and sister in line too."

"Very well then," Megatron's harsh gaze softened subtly. "Consider yourselves honorary members from now until death… You see, once you come aboard, you remain with us until you perish." He looked at Blitzwing and then to Cynthia. "Blitzwing, Cynthia, I hope that you two plan on strengthening your love and aren't childishly infatuated with another because you two will be working side by side for many years granted that all goes well. To see you fall out of love with each other after all this would be truly unfortunate; mostly for the Human."

"She's mine vhether she likes it or not," said Random. He bent down and picked his beloved organic up. Treating her as if she was royalty, he carefully placed her on his shoulder. "No need to vorry, Megatron, I vill have everyzhing under control vith ze Humans! I vill show zem around and get zem used to everyzhing in no time at all! I don't mind vorking vith Cyndi for many years!"

Cyndi ground her jaw stealthily. The mentioning that she might be working for Megatron for a few decades was a truly terrifying prospect. It never hit her until then…

(one hour later…)

Amanda sat outside the mouth of the mine, waiting for her brother and sister to finish talking with Megatron. She asked to be excused and surprisingly, her new boss had no qualms about it. Just being around the silvery bot made her flustered and mortified. Sitting outside cooled her down and soothed her nerves. Not only that, she wished to be alone for a little while so she could quietly digest all that was happening around her.

More than anything else, she wished she could talk to her mother and father to seek counsel and comfort with them. She hoped that maybe her father could somehow appeal to a higher government authority and convince them to call in armed forces to subdue the Decepticon presence. Then she realized the redundancy of that action and recalled that no military force was ever really called in to deal with them. She didn't know how she was going to do it, but she made a vow to herself she was going to free herself from Megatron and make him and his cronies face justice. Then again, the promise of her ruling the Earth as Megatron's governess was extremely tempting…

"I admit it," a voice said from behind her.

She turned her head to the side to face the voice's owner. Amanda didn't jump nor was she startled because she was so used to it.

"Admit what?" she asked.

Lockdown took a few steps closer to her. He stopped when he was literally inches away from her.

"I'm not really the type to admit anything really," he went on. "But here it goes…"

Amanda felt her stomach flutter madly like a hummingbird's wings. She stood up and tilted her head upwards, looking directly into his optics. For a moment, she wondered if it was all good to be true. She braced herself.

"I enjoyed your company," he revealed. "I disliked you at first but I have to say I've grown partial towards you since we spent the month together. I know this may seem a little weird and creepy but I feel protective towards you too. You're going to be in some very deep trouble now that you work for Megatron… You didn't willingly sign up for it and you're young. I feel bad that you were dragged into this all but unfortunately, it can't be undone."

"Don't worry, I'll get back at Cynthia for ruining my life sooner or later," she brushed it off. "All I can do is go with the flow and try to not die."

He scoffed softly and smirked. "Good strategy."

"So now that I'm Megatron's slave like everyone else, what'll happen to you?" she said. "Will I see you again?"

"Of course you will. I work more often with the 'Cons than I do with the 'Bots. So, I'll be floating around like I always am."

"C-can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

She hoped he wouldn't react meanly or coarsely to what was lying on the tip of her tongue.

"I was wondering if Megatron could let you hang out with us again," she said, blushing slightly. "I have to admit when you and Blitzwing were there with us, I felt like I had the army protecting me. Not only that…" Mandy chose her words very carefully. "I like you. I like your company. I know this might come off as weird but I see you as a friend. And don't tell Cyndi this but I like you more than Blitzwing. He frightens me…"

"Don't worry, I won't tell him," Lockdown promised. "I might have slipped on that one promise with them earlier but I'll make it up and keep this one. So, you like me as your guardian, eh?"

"Yes…" She cursed herself for smiling a little too sunnily. "That is, if it's no problem for you. I know you're a bounty hunter and they've got places to go…"

"It should be no problem."

The way he sounded was confident yet nonchalant. Mandy certainly wasn't expecting a reply like that.

"Are you sure?" she pressed, testing his sureness.

"Oh, absolutely," he nodded his helm. "I've got nothing going on. It almost gets too boring on this planet sometimes. I was actually relieved Megatron made me safeguard you and your siblings because it gave me something to do. I think I can manage enduring you for a little while longer."

She placed her hands on her hips.

"You're still a jerk after all this too," she laughed.

"Respect me," he clicked his glossa. "I'm the one taking you and the other two home. I'm the only inconspicuous vehicle here. So, I might as well stick around you."

"Can we go talk to Megatron about it?"

"Might as well. Let's go." He grinned. "And you can talk to him about it. You have to get used to answering to him."


	39. Way of the Decepticon

**Okay, all. So, after some deep thinking and contemplation, I've decided it is only the best and fairest thing to do by continuing on with this story. It is at its halfway point and I think it is almost cowardly to not go on. Not only that, there are still people who like this story and it has encouraged me to go on. This story is staying up for good and it WILL be finished. I thank everyone who sent the supportive reviews and everyone else who decided to stick around. Hopefully you will hang around til the end!**

**Now, for the actual story. So this is a short chapter but it's not without reason. I don't want to spoil too much but I'm sure everyone will know what character (he's canon but from another continuity) will be debuting in this chapter. He may seem a little OOC as opposed as to how he is portrayed in his original continuity but that's me experimenting with his character. I promise he'll seem less obnoxious in later chapters XD Hopefully, all will go well because I somewhat fretted over writing this chapter and I am a little apprehensive about publishing this thing... Anyway, please review and enjoy the update! :)**

Chapter 39 Way of the Decepticon

(two weeks later: July 20th , Decepticon base – 10:00am)

Starscream casually waltzed into the main reception room in the mine, wondering as to why he was summoned to have a private audience with Megatron. Very often, when Megatron wanted to talk to him, it also meant having Lugnut or Blitzwing present. But when the head Decepticon informed him via his comm that he wanted to speak to him completely alone, he was vexed. For a few instants, he wondered if Megatron was poised to kill him for whatever reason. All he knew was that he was to be on guard and ready to defend himself at a moment's notice.

When he entered the large room, Starscream could see the giant silver bot standing before him. His thick arms were folded across his chest but he didn't seem to be impatient with waiting for his second in command to meet with him. So far, all was well as far as the jet could tell. Just as Megatron had said earlier, there really was no other soul in the room to participate in their conversation.

Humbly, the seeker approached him. He stopped about ten feet away from him and bowed his head submissively before his superior.

"Lord Megatron," he said carefully, "what is it?"

"I half expected you to pull some sort of sneaky assassination when I told you we were to meet alone," said Megatron. "It somewhat surprises me that this is not the case."

"I have learned my lesson, my liege. I will rebel against you no more. As I have said earlier, I have learned my place in this cause. If I am to play second fiddle, so be it. It is a reality I've learned to accept with widely opened arms."

"We shall see… Anyway, what I've summoned you for is a simple duty."

"May I ask why the secrecy then?"

"I'm getting to that. An Allspark shard has been detected about ten miles north of our position. Since you don't go out into the world as much and since you made Blitzwing do your Allspark searches all the other times, you get to go."

"Okay…" He scratched his chin quizzically. "And the secrecy..?"

"I called you in here with no one else to intrude because someone else is going to accompany you on this little mission of yours. Starscream, you must learn to work with our newest associates as they must learn to work with you."

He grinned inwardly at Megatron's news.

"Will the lovely Cynthia be my companion for this little errand run?" he pondered silkily.

Megatron glowered at him, narrowing his optics at the sly flier. Starscream flinched at the malice in his lord's inhuman eyes.

"No," he replied. "I still do not understand why you are so suddenly so friendly with the femme but I know you are up to something. Even if I did decide to assign her to you for this task, you'd have to face Blitzwing's wrath. I am in no mood to have you two be reduced to snarling dogs again so I will leave her be regarding this."

"So it comes down to the option of either the ditz or the foolish boy."

"Yes."

"Blitzwing is protective of them as well because he knows we do not take kindly to Humans. He only looks after them because they are Cynthia's family. Not only that, since you accepted Amanda's request to have Lockdown remain her guardian, the two have been inseparable. I know for a fact that neither of them even like me."

"Well, that is your fault for being so disagreeable. This is why I am doing this. The Humans need to learn how things work and how we do things here. They ought to know what an Allspark shard looks like and how to recover one swiftly and efficiently before the Autobots can intercept it."

"That makes enough sense. But have you finalized who my charge, pupil, companion, et cetera, is going to be for this?"

"The gentle one."

Starscream assumed he knew who Megatron was hinting to. He nodded his helm, accepting it.

"I have not talked much with him," he said. "He clings to his sisters constantly."

"Oh, don't mess this up, Starscream," Megatron noted. "I know your greasy, greedy fingers will have no problem snatching up a fragment but I will warn you about the boy. Do not touch him with malicious intent. He is mine and I won't allow you to terminate unless if I say so. I want to see what he can do for his first outing. I have greater confidence in his sisters but I want to see what he's made of. Do you understand me?"

"Even if I did want to harm him, I'd have a heck of a time trying to get away with it. I fully understand, my liege. He will come back intact and alive for that matter… When shall we depart to fulfill your wishes?"

"I contacted Lockdown a little while ago to inform him of my intentions. The boy will be here very shortly. You may as well wait in here with me so that I may brief him."

(ten minutes later…)

Darien felt like he was going to regurgitate the pancakes that he had for breakfast. When he learned from Lockdown that Megatron wanted to talk to and meet him as soon as possible, a million and one possible scenarios ran his head regarding what could go on. He felt so sick with nervousness and anxiety, Cynthia had to support him to stay on his feet. What made it all especially worse was that he had to go completely alone without his sisters. But he was also slightly comforted by the knowledge that Blitzwing was at the mine and seeing him would offer a lot of emotional support, knowing there was one ally with him.

But when he walked down that corridor with Lockdown by his side and caught sight of Megatron and Starscream, he wanted to keel over and perish. Upon realizing Blitzwing was nowhere to be seen, he knew he was completely on his own now.

Reminding himself of Cynthia's advice and words, Darien forced himself to bow before Megatron. He managed to restrain what distress he could and relayed the gesture of servitude to him.

"You rang, sir?" he said to the metal titan.

"I appreciate you showing up on such short notice, Darien," said Megatron. "That is a very promising sign. It shows you are attentive and prompt."

"Thanks…"

"Now you are probably wondering why I called you in."

"Umm, yes."

"I need you to do something for me, Darien. Don't worry, it's not some extremely dangerous or risky errand. All I need you to do is retrieve something for me and bring it back before some other beings can get a hold of it."

"Okay, I can do that. It's not robbing a bank, is it?"

Megatron laughed briefly and smirked at that.

"I'd trust one of my soliders to do that for me," he said. "If I needed to steal from a bank, it would need to be a very substantial amount. No, your job is simple actually. You will have a partner for this task. You'll get some first hand experience and the both of you will learn to work together in the case of unforeseen circumstances in the future."

Darien had a sinking feeling who his partner was considering Starscream was staring right at him. He ground his lower jaw and made contact with the seeker. He attempted a friendly but obviously nervous smile.

"Starscream?" he said. "I'm going to go on the mission with you?"

"Very much so," his associate nodded. "Megatron commands it and so we will do it."

The seventeen year old had to admit he was nervous. He had seen what Starscream had done to Cynthia when he abducted her. He heard from both Blitzwing and Cynthia what he was like. Blitzwing in particular placed emphasis on Starscream's cunning, sly and hypocritical nature. He had warned the three organics to always be wary of him and to never trust any words that were spawned from his tongue.

When he had first met him, Darien was surprised with how suave and polite the jet was. In fact, his actions were almost contrary to what Blitzwing had warned them about. He even actually believed that Starscream could possibly be easy to get along with when he had settled into the reality that he was working for Megatron.

"Alright," said Darien, "let's do this. What are we looking for exactly?"

"Unfortunately, I would brief you more but you must make haste," Megatron tapped a stabilizing servo. "It is very likely someone is already onto what I want you and Starscream to retrieve. He will explain it all to you. Now, go."

(…)

Starscream glanced down at the Human male who was walking beside him. He was somewhat tempted to squash him but in truth, he didn't find himself particularly bothered by Darien. If he was forced to remain flightless and helpless on a deserted island with any of the siblings and he got to choose his companion out of the three of them, it would unquestionably be him. Darien had kept his mouth shut and Starscream liked that.

As for his sisters, he just straight out deplored them both. However, he believed he had done a fairly good job of trying to lure them into a fall sense of security.

"Tell me, do you know what an Allspark fragment looks like?" the mech asked his charge.

"A what?" Darien furrowed his brows. "What's an Allspark?"

"It's only the most important centerpiece of our race. Long story short, it shattered and it's scattered all over the place. Megatron wants us to go out and get a piece of the Allspark because the Autobots are also on the lookout for them."

"So we have to beat them to it..?"

"Precisely." The two of them finally made it to the mouth of the mine. "Are you afraid of flying?"

"No."

"Good, it's easier for me. I would also very much appreciate it if you didn't throw up on the interior."

"Trust me, I won't do that. I know better than to be on a giant robot's bad side."

Starscream grinned.

"You learn quickly," he said. "I like you. Now let's move out and get that shard."

He knelt down and scooped Darien up into his cruel claws. The deceitful bot transformed around the organic but did so with care and caution, being wary to not crush him by accident. He placed him inside the cockpit, setting him in the perpetually empty pilot's seat.

"Where did Megatron say this thing was located?" Darien asked, feeling slightly crept out despite the fact he told Starscream he wasn't uncomfortable with flying.

"About ten miles away from here," his extraterrestrial pilot said. "I suppose this will be a good experience for you since we are on the same team. You'll learn what an Allspark fragment looks like and you'll learn how important it is to capture and keep one…" He ceased to speak for a few seconds as he activated his scanners. Shortly afterwards, he picked up on the shard's signature. "I do believe I've picked up on it already. Oh, and you might want to buckle up. I'm much faster than anything you're used to in all likelihood."

(…)

When he judged that he was close enough, Starscream abandoned his aerial vehicle mode. While transforming, he grabbed hold of Darien and held him in his servo as he completed the process. He then landed on the ground with a loud, tremor-producing thud. Proudly, he stood up to his full height and started to walk the rest of the distance.

"So, what was it like?" Starscream questioned, wanting to strike up a seemingly light and pointless conversation. "How was it when Blitzwing was living with you for that month?"

"I don't really know," said Darien. "It was fun and scary all at the same time."

"I'm sure you had a grand old time, didn't you?"

"We did."

"What were he and your eldest sister doing the whole time?"

"Umm… things."

"'Things'?" He felt his metal guts churn in disgust and contempt. "Define 'things'."

"Hanging out on the couch and watching TV, sneaking out at night… I don't know. Don't really want to know for that matter. You should ask Amanda about all that because she was the one stalking them and sitting outside Cyndi's bedroom door whenever it was closed."

"Dear Amanda is not too fond of me. Plus, her brave, valiant, dark guardian wille undoubtedly drive me away."

Darien shrugged, not knowing what else to really say about the matter Starscream was chatting with him about. Besides, he couldn't help to not feel a little awkward and unsettled in Starscream's presence. He had heard so many bad things about him after all.

Starscream walked along as silently yet as hastily as he could, trying to make sure he wouldn't cause any tremors or make any noise that would hint possible nearby Autobots to his whereabouts. Really, he wouldn't mind toying with one of the five mechs and then disposing of them but he knew that might endanger the life of his tiny comrade. Getting reamed by Megatron for the boy's death was not on his agenda either. Neither did he feel like tarnishing the trust he was trying to build up with Cynthia…

"Are we getting closer to this shard-thing we're looking for?" Darien asked.

Starscream could sense that the signature of the shard was almost overwhelmingly powerful at this point. It was so close that he could've sworn he could almost smell the energy and power that radiated from it.

A few moments later, he could see a telltale glow hidden amongst the undergrowth of the woods around them. His optics narrowed into slits and his vision focused so that he could really be sure of what he was seeing. When a smile formed on his gray face, it gave away everything.

"I see it now," he told the organic. "It's about a hundred feet or so away in the woods." The seeker lowered his servo to the ground, beckoning Darien to step off. When he did that, her reared himself back up to his full height. "Alright, listen up. I want you to go over there and retrieve it and bring it back to me. It's as simple as that."

"Okay," Darien nodded his head. "Question though; is it going to shoot a laser out at me and vaporize me or something like that if I get too close?"

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. Just run over there, grab it and hurry back over to me so we can get out of here before anyone else shows up…" For some reason, he felt like he was being watched even though he couldn't pick up on any advancing Autobot signatures. "Now, please."

"I'm going, I'm going!"

Darien could faintly see a bluish-white object that was softly glistening in the foliage just ahead them. He couldn't believe how these giant robots were making such a fuss over something so small and seemingly insignificant. It had to have been extremely important though if Starscream was telling him to hurry up.

Jogging, he closed in on the lonesome looking Allspark fragment. He slowed up when he got closer to it. Then he knelt down to get a better look at the peculiar gem-like artifact.

Darien had to admit it looked rather dazzling and pretty. He could easily picture it being on display in a museum. If Megatron didn't want this, he'd think nothing of it and he'd give it to Amanda to wear it on a necklace. The young man knew it was important to both Autobots and Decepticons according to what Starscream and Megatron said but he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that such a shard could be so vital to them.

"They want it, they got it," he mumbled to himself, stretching his hand out.

He gently and cautiously picked it up, being a little afraid of shattering it by unlucky chance. When he held it in his hand, he wanted to drop it because it felt like it was alive. It felt warm in his palm and he could've sworn he could feel the hair stand up on the back of his neck. The sensations he was getting from holding this tiny gem were making him feel dreadfully uncomfortable.

"Starscream, I got it!" he lifted his head up.

He looked over his shoulder to make contact with Starscream. When Darien did this, he could see a widened optics and a gaping maw on the seeker's faceplate. The bot seemed as if he had been surprised and didn't know how to handle the situation before him.

"Darien, move!" he shouted. "In front of you..!"

When Darien turned his head to look forward, he found himself looking up at a man who was brandishing an assault rifle. From head to toe, he was garbed in dark clothes along with a ski mask that covered his face. He even had a pair of goggles on that didn't betray any Human emotion or look to the daunting man.

"You little worm," he spat from beneath his ski mask.

Before Darien could react or even process anything else that was going on, the man smacked him across the side of his face with the barrel of the rifle. A small spray of blood erupted from his mouth and Darien collapsed to the ground, loosening his grip on the Allspark shard. He curled up and moaned in agony, clutching the side of his face as it throbbed violently.

Starscream raised his null rays at the armed Human, ready to terminate him, snatch up Darien and the prize and promptly boost out of the area before things could get any worse. He snickered wickedly and locked onto his target.

"You can hurt him but what can you do to me?" he cackled.

"Now, boys," a new voice stated loudly but calmly.

The jet nearly jumped out of his metal hide when he saw about a dozen other armed Humans emerge from the undergrowth and security of the woods around them. They encircled him and raised their weapons at him. On the ends of the barrels of their guns, there was a grappling hook with curved, barbed grips on it.

"Fire at will," the same voice said with the exact amount of stoicism.

"I think not!" Starscream protested, charging up the null ray perched on his other arm.

In near perfect unison, the twelve men shot at Starscream. He hesitated at this since he was still caught completely by surprise when he saw the masked Human batter Darien with the rifle. This hesitation had cost him and the grappling hooks embedded into his inorganic flesh.

Starscream winced in the pain as he felt the barbs dig into him and tear at his hide, making pink streams of energon seap from the wounds they created. He tried to extract one of the hooks that had been planted into him stubbornly but he quickly saw this was a vain effort. As it turned out, in addition to them being designed for tearing and also anchoring into metal, they hooks were magnetized.

"What..!" he stuttered. "What is this?"

"Gentlemen…" the voice said yet again. Starscream watched as a grizzled, middle-aged man walked out from the cover of the woods. The man smirked coldly at the winged Decepticon. "Gun 'em down."

In his fervor while trying to rid himself of the hooks, Starscream completely forgot about the cables that ran from the gun barrels to the hooks. He realized their purpose when the men applied pressure to the triggers. A mighty and excruciatingly painful surge of electricity pumped through the cables, conducted through the grappling hooks and then directly flowed into Starscream's body.

As soon as the flood of electricity pulsated mercilessly through him, the seeker screamed at the top of his vocal components and fell to his knees. His whole body twitched and convulsed disturbingly as if he was experiencing an epileptic fit. Sparks flickered from the hooks as long as the steady yet incapacitating flow of electricity was applied. He was so wracked with agony that Starscream couldn't even focus on fleeing or trying to extract the barbed hooks from his hide. Instead, all he could do was clench his jaw and try to endure the pain as best as he could.

"PLEASE!" he roared. "STOP IT!"

"You heard 'em," the ring leader said. "Let's make him feel more comfortable. Give him enough where he stays knocked out 'til we can make it back home."

The men wordlessly obeyed by squeezing their trigger harder and thus making a greater voltage of electricity flow into Starscream. When this happened, the seeker's optics widened and they turned gray without a warning. He fell flat onto his faceplate, looking to be that he had died as soon as they added more power. The flying Cybertronian had gone completely limp but the color of his armor didn't fade, signaling that he had not expired. Instead, he had only went into stasis lock from the sheer pain of the surprise attack.

Upon seeing the beast fall, the head honcho calmly walked over to where Darien was lying on the ground. He folded his arms across his chest and stopped a mere few inches away from him. The man jabbed him in the ribs with the tip of his boots.

"Boy, I had no idea you were in cahoots with the likes of these devils," he said.

"Who the Hell…" Darien said through gritted teeth, "…are you?"

"Name's Silas." He knelt down to look him in the eye. "What's your name, son?"

"Mr. Silas, I'm not in cahoots with them..! I..!"

Silas clamped his hand around Darien's face and squeezed it. He flinched at this pressure he exerted and he whined in pain. The smack from the rifle-toting henchman was still taking a toll on him too.

"You know its name," Silas said lowly. "We've been watching you two since you landed right here into our little trap. The Decepticon leader wants this, doesn't he?" He picked up the Allspark shard that was a foot away from Darien's hand. For a moment, he admiringly studied the fragment and then promptly placed it into his pocket. "I ain't stupid and don't you dare even think about lying to me."

"What do you want with Starscream?" Darien tried to sit up.

"You can say I'm an admirer of sorts, particularly with the unknown. Ever since I was a tyke, I loved aliens. Obsessed, actually… Roswell, little green men, the Phoenix lights, you know, all that. When I was growing up, my father owned a repair garage and you can guess that I became interested with machines and whatnot too. So, when I saw that these fascinating giants came to this planet, you can say it rekindled my passion. It was a blessed matrimony of my two passions… Long story short, I'm scooping him up and running off so I can see how he works."

"You can take him, I don't even like him! He's a jerk!"

"See?" Silas laughed. He let go of Darien's face. "You were tryin' to lie to me. You're their little errand boy, aren't ya? You know, I ought to put a bullet in your dumb little skull for betrayin' your own race and all. But I ain't dumb. You have use for me, which is why you're coming with us along with your friend. So you better get up and walk now before I shoot your kneecaps out."

(…)

He ceased the pacing that he had found himself doing for the past two hours. Megatron deemed the time was appropriate and long enough. It didn't take one long enough to snatch up an Allspark shard that was located ten miles away, especially when one of the teammates could fly.

"Starscream," he said, trying to make contact with him via his comm. "Starscream, how's the situation going along? Have you retrieved the shard yet?"

All he got from his second in command's line was nothing but droning, monotonous static. He wasn't there nor did it seem like he was going to answer back. This wasn't a good sign in the least bit.

But it was a sign he had been hoping and waiting for. That could only mean one thing. Megatron smiled at these realizations, seeing that his plan was going along smoothly so far.

"Now for phase two," he said to himself. He contacted the line of another Cybertronian. "Lockdown, I need you to fetch Darien's sisters. I have not been able to contact Starscream and I have a dreadful feeling in the pit of my spark…"


	40. Task Force

**Guys, thanks a ton for the reviews/alerts/faves! I'm happy to see some people have stuck around and I gained some new readers! I wanted to hold off on publishing this chapter until I typed up a few new chapters but that was a big fat flop. Writer's block and work is to blame but never fear, I will get this done sooner or later. So, nothing much to really say about this section other than it sets the stage for the big events in the next chapters but hopefully you will enjoy it. Please review but most importantly, enjoy :)**

Chapter 40 Task Force

(…)

Now it was Cynthia's turn to be an emotional wreck. When Lockdown had showed up back at the apartment without Darien and telling the girls Megatron needed to see them, she instantly assumed the worst. She had asked him about the situation and he replied to her that Darien went off with Starscream on a short mission and the seeker didn't reply to Megatron's call. Her fingers and her toes were crossed for him and she was hoping he'd do awesome for his first assignment although it was a fairly simple one. Then this newsflash had to spring up out of the blue.

"It's gotta be joke or something," Amanda said rather casually. "He's with Starscream, I'm sure he wouldn't let anything hurt him."

"Yes, that's what concerns me," Cynthia snapped. "He went off with Starscream. I would've much preferred it if Blitzwing went with him instead. I know Blitzwing and Darien are on friendly terms with one another. As for him and Starscream, as far as I know, they've never spoken to each other before."

"I thought you and that creep were making up with each other."

"If Darien ends up dead or seriously injured on Starscream's part, I will make him pay… I'll leave it at that."

"Perhaps I can aid you with that," Lockdown offered. He was leading the females to Megatron's throne room. "I can give you a discount too since we're on friendly terms with one another."

"Thank you, Lockdown, I will keep that in mind."

Amanda inched a little closer to her guardian. At this point in time, she saw it pointless to even deny to herself of the way she began to see him. Earlier, there would've been a great deal of tears, screaming matches and lying but now she lovingly and childishly embraced what was flickering warmly in her heart. Although she had told no soul about it and wasn't ready to discuss it with anyone at the moment, the blonde was thoroughly convinced she was in love with the bounty hunter.

She now felt like a big, fat hypocrite since she had lectured her elder sister about having an extraterrestrial lover when now she was the one having feelings for an alien. Currently, Mandy was too prideful to admit that. All she could focus on was Lockdown and Lockdown alone. She yearned to tell him how she felt and many times, she felt as if her heart was going to burst at the seams with joy and optimism. The fact that she was an agent of Megatron was only a petty concern to her now. More than anything else, she wanted to bear her heart to him and smooch him on that tattooed faceplate she had grown to love. But at the same time, she felt so sheepish and shy about confessing what she felt to him which was rather uncharacteristic of her.

Lockdown's optics flitted to Amanda's form when he saw her move closer.

"'Fraid of bats?" he asked with a raised brow plate.

"Actually, yes," she said. "I hate them! I'm especially afraid of the big fruit bats with the six foot wingspan! I'm sure you're stronger and scarier than any bat in this mine and I'm sticking close to you."

Lockdown refrained from replying to her statement altogether. He looked away from her and reflected on his innermost thoughts.

The green and black bot had been getting peculiar vibes about her lately. Since he had renewed his guardianship, he noticed Amanda almost seemed clingy to him somehow. She had always wanted to go out for drives with him in the middle of the night and when they did do that, all she did was talk his audio receptors off. He practically knew her entire life story because of those conversations.

He was a little flattered and maybe a bit happy to see someone like him so much but at the same time, it unnerved him. He recalled the Fourth of July fireworks display two weeks earlier and how she had leaned up against him. The blush she had on her face when she realized what she had done was burned into his memory core. Anymore, he began to believe his Human friend had a little crush on him.

Lockdown debated with himself over discussing this fixation of hers but he thought it would be awkward simultaneously. So he decided to shut his mouth until things got out of hand or until she came clean to him and speak the truth which she nursed within her heart.

When Cynthia could finally see the figures of Lugnut, Megatron and Blitzwing standing in the room waiting for them, she bolted. Amanda chose to stand beside her guardian and favorite Cybertronian.

"Okay, what is going on?" Cynthia said with sterness and anxiety in her voice at the same time. She was completely oblivious to the small, tender, greeting smile Blitzwing shot at her. It had been a few days since they had last seen each other and he was delighted to see her. "Where's Darien? What happened to him?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Cynthia," said Megatron, shaking his helm heavily. "I have tried to contact Starscream again since I asked Lockdown to bring you and Amanda in and I came up with nothing. If you ask me, this is most confusing and troubling."

"Is he okay though?" Mandy pressed. "Do we know anything at all? This is our baby brother here!"

"I cannot say, ladies. I have not seen or heard from either of them since they had departed to retrieve an Allspark shard some hours earlier."

"Autobots," Lugnut suspected. "Could they be behind this inactivity?"

"Perhaps. But we won't know for certain unless we get to the bottom of this."

"Vould it be vise to investigate ze surrounding area for any clues of zheir vhereabouts?" Blitzwing questioned. "Maybe ve can find answers zat vay."

A 'blip' sound came from the giant computer screen that was mounted on the wall behind Megatron. It repeated again a few seconds later and then once more in the same amount of time and tone. The 'blip' reminded the Humans of a sonar system.

Megatron turned his back on his minions and faced the screen. He took a step or two closer to it and narrowed his optics at the screen. The silver mech studied what was being displayed.

A blue dot was blinking on the computer screen and its blinking was perfectly in sync with the 'blip' noise that was still being emitted. The dot was moving slowly but steadily along. The background on the screen was a map of the surrounding area and it appeared that the mystery signature detected was moving north across Lake Erie.

"Ah!" Megatron said in a mildly surprised tone. "Perhaps this will help us get some results. It appears that the signature I detected from the shard earlier is moving. I highly doubt it sprouted legs and is moving on its own accord… I think it is obvious that someone is making way with it."

"Darien?" Amanda and Cynthia asked in unison.

"Maybe. I think it's possible that if you find out what is carrying that shard from our position, we may discover why Starscream and your brother have not been able to keep in touch."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Mandy clapped her hands together. "_Vamanos_, let's go!"

"In a moment, impertinent child…" The head Decepticon glowered at her briefly but then quickly forgave her by ceasing the daunting glare. "So I have decided this; the shard must be tracked down. We can snatch it and recover our two comrades at the same time if we act efficiently and swiftly. Lugnut and Blitzwing, I want the both of you to follow the shard's signature. However, I don't want you to follow it in plain sight and I advise caution in tracking it down to avoid detection, especially if the holder of the shard is hostile."

"Your will is ours, master," Lugnut bowed.

"Oh, the femmes will accompany you two as well. Please, for spark's sake, don't lose them."

"Even if you didn't originally intend for us to go with them, I'd ask you to at least have me tag along," said Cynthia. "I want to find my brother."

"Hey, I care for him too!" Mandy folded her arms across her chest. "Can we have Lockdown tag along with us as well?"

"I'm sorry but your guardian will remain here until you return from your little mission," Megatron denied her request. "If you look at the screen…" He motioned to the display behind him. "You can see that the shard is heading over the lake. My guess is that whoever is transporting it has intentions of crossing it. You need wings to follow them and your friend has none. Besides, another bot trailing behind may possibly cause stealth issues."

She wanted to stomp her foot onto the ground like an irate ram. Being stuck with Lugnut and Blitzwing for this outing wasn't very agreeable to her. Miserably, she kept silent and accepted it, knowing that her brother's safe return was far more important than anything else.

"Fine," she said with a hint of bitterness. "That makes sense…"

"Good, now be off," Megatron instructed. "Make sure to contact me as soon as you have an update about the situation."

(…)

Lugnut wasn't per say thrilled about the idea of having more Humans go out on missions that were meant to be for Decepticons and Decepticons only. Privately, he still believed the siblings had neither place nor purpose in their ranks but he had only accepted them because Megatron did. He did respect his master's will but he couldn't help but to not feel an inkling of doubt about the effectiveness of the organics. His leader encouraged him and Starscream to get used to the new inductees since it was inevitable they were going to interact with one another sooner or later. But all he felt towards them was contempt and disgust, especially towards Cynthia, whom he saw as a blatant disturbance.

The cyclopean bot shifted his attention from the Humans who stood clustered around Blitzwing's metal feet to his partner himself. He still felt some anger towards the triple changer for falling for an organic. Earlier, he had held him in higher regard and once considered him to be his friend but now Lugnut saw him to be as flawed and traitorous as Starscream in his optics.

Blitzwing's arms were folded across his chest, not feeling very keen to start squabbling with Lugnut while Starscream and Darien were still missing. He was growing rather weary of the deathly glares he received from Lugnut every so often.

"Blitzwing, since you have a disturbing and disgusting admiration for Human femmes, you can transport both of them in your vehicle mode," Lugnut remarked snidely. "I will not carry either of them with me."

"Hate to break it to jou but I can't have both of zem sit comfortably in me," Hothead replied with equal snapiness. "Zhey vould have to sit in each ozher's lap. Not only zat, ze trip might be a long one for zem. I have to take one and jou take ze ozher. If ze shard vasn't moving over Erie, ve vouldn't be having zis problem."

"I will not take one of them! The idea is repulsive!"

"Vhen vas ze last time jou talked to a femme?" Random giggled.

"I will not betray Strika especially for a weak, miniscule germ, Blitzwing…"

"I didn't mean it in zat connotation, jou dense idiot," Icy rolled his normal optic. "Vhat I mean is zat jou have to get used to zem."

The overzealous Decepticon grumbled impatiently. He eyed the two sisters with an equal amount of impatience brewing in them.

"How about this," Cynthia proposed, "Mandy goes with Blitzwing and I go with you?"

"Silence, foul temptress!" Lugnut rejected. "You have no say about the transportation arrangements!"

"Why do I have to go with him?" Mandy pouted.

"Yes, vhy does she have to go vith me?" Hothead asked.

"I think it would be safer for the two of you to be paired up until we catch up with the shard Megatron wants us to get," Cyndi explained. "Please tell me that you both get my drift with that…"

"I suppose," the younger sister admitted. "I'd much rather go with your kooky boy toy than Titanic over there."

"Vell, I guess I have to take her now because if Lugnut gets a hold of her, he'll kill her," Blitzwing decided. It was obvious he had his spark set on having to carry Cynthia rather than Amanda. "Lugnut, don't do anyzhing to her."

"Like I would want to," he retorted shortly.

Without wasting another moment, Blitzwing bent down and lifted Amanda off the ground. With a pouty look on her face, she allowed this. He then transformed into his aerial vehicle mode whilst still holding her. Blitzwing steadily ascended and then began to fly off in the direction that the Allspark fragment was travelling in.

Lugnut plucked his passenger up from the ground. He gripped her by the back of her shirt with his pinch-like servos and dangled her a few feet from his face. His optic focused sharply on her, studying her features.

"I don't like you," he said.

"I know, I know…" she said tiredly. "No need to remind me. I already feel horribly out of place. I went with you because I know you'd kill my sister. She doesn't know how or when to shut her mouth. Blitzwing knows better than to hurt her on the other hand."

"What sort of black magic did you employ on Blitzwing to make him fall for you?" He transformed into his bomber altmode. Cynthia found herself in a rather spacious cockpit. Lugnut ascended and picked up his speed in order to catch up with Blitzwing. "I demand you to release him from your wretched bonds!"

"I am not a sorceress! Human female and giant man-bot fell in love with each other and that's about it. To be honest, I'm still trying to figure out how he fell in love with me!"

"No organic can deceive a Decepticon! Sooner or later, I will break the odious curse which you placed upon him!"

"And then what? I'll still be here until Megatron wants to kill me. He won't let me walk away anyway since I know too much."

"Just so you know, Human, your presence is most unwelcome amongst us at best. However, I cannot understand why Starscream treats you with such civility… Megatron's opinions and thoughts on you will be solidified when you return from rescuing your brother and retrieving the Allspark shard. Pray that all will go well for yourself. I know that I will tell Megatron the truth and nothing but the truth when we return. If you do well, I will tell the truth. If you do horribly, I will tell the truth. I cannot tell a lie to Megatron and since he is my unquestionable and omnipotent leader, I must speak no lies to him."

Cynthia saw she had that in her favor. When she discovered this, she sighed in relief. Although Lugnut clearly wasn't fond of her, at least he had some indirect degree of honor for her. If she had done well in an assignment and he had seen it for himself, Lugnut would tell the truth and nothing but it to Megatron. That in itself could be a huge help to her. However, if she had done a less than admirable job, the husky 'Con would pull no punches with that too.

"Could you at least give me a chance?" she asked him, sitting up in her seat. Lugnut hadn't even bothered to strap her in.

"The chance and the time is drawing close, spy," he said, placing some bitterness on the word 'spy'. "Prove to us what you can do."

Those words struck a chord in her heart. That, along with her concern about her brother preoccupying her thoughts, made her feel incredibly empowered and determined. There was no way she was going to be the pushover just because of her stature. What she'd lack in height and brute strength, she was going to make up in bravery, wits and words.

"A million thanks, Lugnut," she said confidently. "I will show you what I can do given the chance."

She looked out the blackened glass that covered the cockpit. Cynthia could barely make out the silhouette of Blitzwing's jet mode flying adjacent to Lugnut's own vehicular disguise. Her sister was there with him; she could only imagine what they were talking about that is, if they even bothered to give each other an acknowledging comment. The two attempted to get along for Cyndi's sake but Amanda had never ridden inside him before.

"Is there any way where I can get a hold of Blitzwing and my sister through you?" she asked.

"Why?" Lugnut barked. "I can clearly see Blitzwing flying right besides me. He would've commed me if there was an issue with the brat anyway…"

"I DID NO SUCH ZHING!" Hothead suddenly roared.

When this persona took control, who had usurped Icy, the jet abruptly turned into a tank. As this transformation took place, Blitzwing began to plummet to the ground below.

Cyndi literally threw herself against the glass in horror, trying to figure out just what happened. Her eyes were widened in confused terror.

"What just happened?" she gasped.

"You never noticed?" Lugnut said sullenly. "One of Blitzwing's biggest glitches is that his personalities are tied to his vehicle mode. His bull-headed self prefers the tank while the calm one prefers the jet. And the loon chooses whatever he wants."

"Yes, yes I know about it because it happened to me too! I'm just confused and shocked now! I heard Hothead's voice and then he turned into a tank… Wait, my sister is with him and he's falling!"

"Blitzwing will transform again so he won't crash. I'm sure you scold him like a sparkling when it comes down to your siblings anyway." He appeared to be completely nonchalant about the matter at hand. Obviously, he was far more used to Blitzwing and all the little quirks that came with him even more so than Cynthia. "Now don't scream, I cannot afford a processor-ache."

Cynthia bit her lower lip so hard the skin broke and she bled a little. However, she didn't have to wait for too long to see some positive results when she saw him turn back into a jet before he could smash into the ground below.

Blitzwing shot himself upwards at a sharp angle and added some power to his thrusters so he could catch up with Lugnut.

"Sorry about zat," Icy's voice suddenly spoke loud and clear through Lugnut's comm. Lugnut amplified it so Cynthia could hear it and prevent her from becoming too paranoid. "Zhings got a little out of hand…"

"Cyndi, trade me, now!" Mandy screeched. "He almost killed me by pulling a suicide-death plunge!"

"I'm sure it's something you did to madden him," Cyndi said, sitting back down in her seat. "Stop screaming. Let's just focus on getting our brother back, okay?"

"Yes, I agree," Lugnut spoke. "Let's make haste but not trail the shard too closely. My scanners indicate that there is a distance between us and it. When it finally stops moving, we will then contact Megatron and discuss what to do."

(five hours later: Northwest Territories, Canada – wilderness)

When the burlap bag was pulled away from his face, Darien inhaled cool, fresh crisp air that made him cough deeply. He squinted his eyes as a painfully bright light flooded his vision. Earlier, he was forced to face darkness that had dulled all of his senses but now that the bag was removed, he got a major case of sensory overload.

"Soldier on, little boy," a man said from behind. Darien turned his head to the side to face the speaker. It was the same man from earlier that hit him with the barrel of his rifle. "Keep walking."

"W-w-what's going on?" he stuttered. "Where are we?"

"Far away from your home, that's for sure."

Darien could see that he was standing on a crudely constructed helipad that was situated on the side of a mountain. The whirring of the sharp blades of the helicopter he stepped off of pulsed rhythmically and picked back up when the vehicle rose into the air after dropping the boy off. He looked up the mountain, seeing that it was crowned with a perpetual layer of virgin snow. There was a chilly nip to the air but the shining sun had made it pleasant enough outside.

Behind the bulky form of the henchman escorting him, the boy could see deep, verdant coniferous woodlands situated in the valley below the mountainside he was perched on. Nestled in those dense woods, he spotted a tiny cerulean colored lake. As far as he could see with his naked eye, all he could spy for miles upon miles was nothing but dark gray mountains, ancient forests and deep lakes.

If he didn't have a gun pointed into his spinal column, he would've really taken the time to bask in and appreciate the gorgeous sight before him. Wherever he was, it was desolate and most likely far from civilization. Naturally, it had to be a place where no one could hear him screen or where he couldn't run too far off without getting mauled by a bear or a mountain lion.

"Can I at least know where I am?" he asked his escort.

"Not unless if Mr. Silas says it's alright," the man retorted. "Now, scoot. Since we assume you to be an associate of the Decepticons, we want answers from you."

(a few minutes later)

"Thank you kindly," Silas looked up from his desk. He took one more puff from his cigar and set it down in a porcelain ash tray. The man leaned back into his chair and folded his hands together. "You can leave him go now and remove those cuffs. They're not necessary at this point."

The rifleman undid the cuffs that restrained Darien with a loud click. He removed them from his wrists and nudged him further into the room. Then he backed out, allowing Silas to have a private audience with the young man. The heavy oaken doors amazingly shut very quietly and gently behind him.

All Darien could do was stare back at Silas who was still sitting behind his desk. After a few seconds of looking at him, he managed to break the frightened gaze and observe the office around him.

Off to his immediate right, there was a four hundred gallon saltwater aquarium. A purplish-white light shone into the tank, illuminating the vibrant colors of the blue tangs, clownfish, anemonies and other tiny inhabitants. Right above the tank, mounted on the wall was a picture frame. Within that frame was an old movie poster of the nineteen fifties sci-fi movie, '_The Day the Earth Stood Still_'.

Darien faced the left side of the room, seeing another antique movie poster hung up on the wall in a frame. This one was of the nineteen sixties cowboy film, '_The Good, the Bad and the Ugly_'. Another feature that shared this side of the room was a glass display case that was full of rustic magnums and pistols from centuries past. He took a step closer to examine the collection of firearms, taking an interest in them.

"I keep my favorite one in my desk," Silas said, resting his shoulders on the top of his desk. "I still use it from time and time again too."

Darien looked away from the display case and faced Silas. Behind the man was an oval shaped window that offered a comely view of the mountain chain that MECH's headquarters were situated in. After looking at that, he focused on the inviting-looking leather upholstered chair that sat in front of Silas' desk. He didn't notice this until now but the whole room smelled like tobacco. It wasn't a disgusting smell and actually smelled aromatic and herby. Whatever was in the cigar was the cause of this peculiar scent.

"Sit down, boy," he said. "You look like you're 'bout ready to piss yourself."

Without a moment to lose, Darien sat down. He wrung his hands fearfully and crossed his legs, just wondering what was going to happen to him.

"Where are we?" he croaked.

"Northwest Territories," Silas revealed. "In, well, northwestern Canada to be specific. I decided to situate my little operations up here. Things back at home in the USA are not as private as they used to be. At least there's somewhat of a wild frontier up here. Granted, there're some tourist locales around here but we're nice and isolated for the most part."

"That's a smart move."

"You're a kid of little words I see. How old are you, son?"

"Seventeen."

"You're not like those other silly, bull-headed boys your age. But maybe, the reason why you're so quiet is because you're just chockfull of secrets." He leaned in closer to him. "Am I right or am I right?"

"Okay, I'm gonna tell you the truth about something…" Darien flinched in his chair as he felt his pulse rise increasingly. "I didn't willingly join them. I was forced."

"Then you should've resisted. You're still a traitor. It's better to have died a loyalist to your own species than bending over for them."

"I didn't want to die!"

"You're a coward then."

"Yeah… Yeah, you can say that I guess."

Silas picked up his cigar and began to smoke it again. He took a deep breath and then exhaled it. He blew it directly into Darien's face, making him cough a little.

"You've got no spine," he noted. "If that's the case, why did they force you to join them? You some kind of super Human who can transform when they're exposed to moonlight or something? Tell me a little bit about yourself."

"I'm just a regular person! I'm not Super Man! I'm not Spider Man! I'm just me! I was forced to serve them because…" He absolutely dreaded even discussing the truth as to how he came to serve Megatron. Talking about his sister's secret with this intimidating man was a truly mortifying prospect. "…I knew too much about something."

"You can tell me anything. We're fellow Humans, right? I want them off the planet. That's why I kidnapped the one called Starscream. I have to admit that if I didn't find that measly little jewel shard, we probably would've never been able to capture him. I plan on ripping him to pieces and finding out how he works. I can do some good old reverse engineering and figure out how to take care of the others on this fair planet."

"Starscream's here?"

"Yes, he is. He's in one of the labs beneath the mountain. And don't worry, he won't be able to break out. We've got him strapped down nice and tight and disassembly will be commencing very shortly. All I need is a call from my chief engineer who'll tell me everything's ready to go. Then all I need to say is 'have at it'."

"What're you going to do to me?"

"That depends on how well you cooperate, son. I want you to tell me all you know. If you were forced to work for them, then I'm sure you're more than willing to chat with me and betray them." He took another puff. "Come on, I'll be your friend."

Darien was more than tempted to betray Megatron. As he reflected on how Starscream fell and lost consciousness from the surprise attack, he nursed some hope in his heart that maybe Megatron would be taken care of in the same way. Yet he feared harming his sisters by giving away too much information to Silas. Not only that, Blitzwing was the only 'Con he liked and he would genuinely feel bad if something nasty had befallen him because of him.

He was also getting unpleasant vibes from Silas himself. Darien felt as if he had been kidnapped from one villain and was now being held by another. Now though, he was starting to believe Silas was the lesser evil in all this. At least he wanted to defend their race and take care of the Decepticon presence.

Darien was shaken from his internal war when he heard a click. He refocused his attention on MECH's leader, seeing a magnum barrel pointed directly between his eyes.

"I suggest you start talking now," Silas advised with a smile. "Or are you just feeling lucky today?"

The boy fidget fearfully in his chair, violently grasping onto the armrests. His heart was ready to bust through his chest and he was thankful he had no stool or urine being ready to be expelled from his system. His complexion faded to a sickly, pale color and he almost fainted on the spot. His lower lip twitched and he could feel his eyes burn painfully and warmly. The boy's breathing hitched and he found it difficult to breathe. His gaze didn't dare to tear away from the barrel that was staring directly back at him...

"It was a secret," Darien said sorrowfully. Tears came from his eyes. "My sister got involved with one of the Decepticons and Megatron found out…"

Silas was confused now. He looked down for a moment but then quickly returned his gaze to the teenager.

"What the Hell do you mean by that?" he interrogated. "Define 'involved'."


	41. Night on Bald Mountain pt1

**Thank you for the reviews/alerts/faves, dearies! Apologies for the delay in updating but I wanted to write some more chapters before posting the next update. Not only that, I am practically working full time with college on my plate so things have been a little busy for me. Okay, so this is where things start moving on a little more quickly. Not only that, a series of threatening text messages sent to me encouraged me to post this up as soon as possible ;) So I did it!**

**Anyway, as for the unusual name and italicized font for the chapter title, that's all intentional. The name of the chapter is taken directly from a very real instrumental piece from the Russian composer Mussorgsky; I practically wrote this chapter along with the next two chapters to this song since it directly inspired me to write the events in the chapters. Any Disney kids might fondly remember the film** _"Fantasia"_**; the composition was featured in that movie with that evil bastard creeper Chernabog *shudders* ****Aside from the explanation for the title, there's nothing else to elaborate. Please review and enjoy as always! :)**

Chapter 41 _Night on Bald Mountain_ pt.1

(Northwest Territories - 7:30pm, wilderness)

Lugnut felt nothing but relief when he had finally descended to the sweet ground below. Although he had made some impressive treks in his lifetime (such as following Blitzwing halfway across the galaxy to Earth), he had to admit that this was one journey he had very little tolerance for. All he did was cross over Lake Erie and some of Canada's landmass; it certainly wasn't that much of a great distance in his species' terms. But he was just glad the pursuit was over. Now all he had to do was plan how to retrieve the shard and regain custody of Darien and Starscream whom he was very sure were alongside the fragment.

For the past "x" amount of hours, he had directly flown north with his organic passenger. He had detected that the Allspark fragment had stopped its travel a few hours earlier but Megatron had ordered him to not trail directly behind it. Catching the shard's captor by surprise was very much a method to this mission.

He assumed his robot mode, ending up with having Cynthia sitting on his shoulder. Lugnut scowled in disgust upon seeing her wind up on this spot and he grasped her. He knelt down and then set her onto the ground.

Seconds later, they could hear the roar of another aerial vehicle. Before they could look up to see Blitzwing plunge to the Earth, they could feel the tremor in the Earth which originated from the triple changer landing on his stabilizing servos. In his purple-banded hand, he held a very shaken and tense Amanda.

"Put me down, I need to run off into the woods and barf my brains out!" she decreed. "I never, ever want to fly with you again! I almost died Lord knows how many times!"

"Oh, come on, I'm not zat bad of a flier," said Random. "Jou vere ze one making zhings difficult!" He gently brought her down to the forest floor and she bolted out of his hand. "Don't get lost Mandy!"

She ignored what he said and ran to the cover of a patch of tightly growing spruce trees. Amanda hid behind them so no one could see her empty her already barren stomach. Much to her company's disgust, they could hear her dry heave.

"If I knew we were going to make a trip to the middle of nowhere, I would've brought some water and apple slices or something," Cynthia mumbled.

Cyndi saw a shadow engulf her own shadow. A faint ruby glow was cast on her and she looked up, seeing a giant hand lining her field of vision. She didn't recoil from this and she openly embraced it.

"Hello, stranger," Blitzwing chuckled as he placed her on his shoulder.

"Hey, there," she said rather sullenly. Her worry eclipsed the affection she bore for her sweetie.

"Don't vorry, ve'll find jour brozher. Ve're going to talk about it now."

"Are these idiotic, fluffy dealings done and over with?" Lungut drawled. "Get a room."

"I can't even do zat anymore because someone likes to place her head up against ze door and listen to everyzhing," Hothead hissed, referring to Amanda. "Zat knowledge sure bugs ze slag out of me and I can't get anyvhere knowing someone spies on me!"

"Great, I'm going to throw up even harder now at that!" the other sister called, hearing his statement loud and clear. "I was just sickly curious!"

"Okay, I don't want to talk about it," Cynthia shook her head. "Whatever, it's done and over with. Let's focus on getting that stupid shard, Starscream and my brother, please!"

"For once, I agree with her," Lugnut spoke. "Now, we must discuss how we are going to retrieve this shard. I've detected that it is residing within those mountains." He pointed his servo over to some mountains that rose up from the canopies of the trees. "As we approached, I've scanned the area and discovered that there is a facility located there. I could pick up on the shard's signature but it was weak; I believe that is the case because it is heavily fortified. We may be dealing with a force that may put up some resistance. I think they, whoever they are, are prepared to deal with the likes of us."

"Vell, if it is heavily fortified, zhen zhey must obviously be hiding somezhing," Blitzwing deduced. "Clearly, it is ze shard but ze remote location in vhich zis compound is established in is also sketchy."

"Maybe this is the Canadian version of Area 51," Amanda said, retreating from the cluster of spruces. "Maybe they have all kinds of crazy stuff and weapons of mass destruction in there."

"Dear, you do realize Area 51 is nonsense?" Cynthia rolled her eyes.

"Says the chick sitting on a giant alien's shoulder like she's Queen Cleopatra."

"Enough!" Lugnut thundered. He stomped his foot into the ground, sending a tremor through it. Amanda fell off her feet from this action. "Are we taking this delicate matter seriously or not?"

"Just a suggestion…"

"No matter. How are we to go about and retrieve the fragment?"

"Are we absolutely sure that Darien and Starscream are in that facility with the shard?" Cynthia asked. "We still didn't even get a hold of Starscream nor did we find any traces of them."

"Zhink of it like zis," Blitzwing explained to her, "zhey vere sent off to retrieve ze fragment and didn't return from ze task or even contacted anyone. Yet for some reason, ze shard started moving on its own vith neither Starscream nor Darien in sight. I zhink it is very likely zat whoever took it may very vell know vhat happened to zem. I cannot guarantee zat my zheory is unfalteringly correct but I zhink it is highly probable."

"Hey, I'm willing to buy it," Mandy said, standing up onto her feet and brushing dirt off her jean shorts. "That's better than any other reason I can think of. So, some shady government agents might have my brother in other words..? Great, now I'm probably going to asked to pose as a double for some princess." She laughed softly to herself. "Heh, I don't mind that at all…"

"How are we to go about and recover it?" pressed Lugnut. "If Blitzwing's assumptions are correct and Starscream is being held in the mountains, these may be some organics who could cause us some consternation and trouble. If that is true, we must be cautious and not wind up joining Starscream in miserable hopelessness. Megatron would never forgive us for that inadequacy! We are his only hope for this mission now and it cannot be jeopardized…"

"Anyzhing can be accomplished vith some firepower and ferocity," Hothead grinned competitively. "All ve have to do is bust in vith our veapons blazing, grab vhat ve came for and head home. It's simple!"

Lugnut rolled his optic and ground his lower jaw at Blitzwing's aggressive side. He knew that at any minute now, Icy would most likely regain dominion over his body and quickly suggest another, more thought out and complex plot.

"Or," Random amazingly was the personality with the intentions to counter Hothead's suggestion, "maybe ze squishes vill be so surprised zat zhey vill drop everyzhing and run avay screaming like little femmes! Zat vould make zhings much easier and funnier!"

Cynthia felt completely powerless and it thoroughly disgusted her. There were two, large, strong Decepticons who were more than ready to rush in like a pair of ruffians and get things done. On the other hand, she and her sister would sit on the sidelines and let them do all the work. They were Humans; small, unarmed and nonthreatening. The more she thought about it, the more irritated and determined she became. Now she was become fully convinced that her brother was being held in the facility. There was no way she was going to stand around and do nothing while Darien was most likely terrified out of his mind and pining for her comfort and his freedom. Although she was his sister, she could feel sturdy and protective maternal instincts lay their roots into her heart and soul.

Her hands curled into fists. The young woman gathered up all the selfless courage she had weaved into her being. Cyndi opened up her mouth and spoke.

"I have an idea," she said. "How about Mandy and I walk up to the facility and cause a distraction there? We can keep them focused on us while you two get ready to rip the place apart when they least expect it. How does that sound?"

"Vhat do I zhink about it?" Icy said. "I zhink not!"

"Woah, those guys have guns and what do we have?" Amanda asked. "We have nothing but our feminine wiles!"

"That's what we'll use then," Cynthia said. "We were born females for a reason and we're going to use that to our advantage. I don't think men would shoot defenseless females asking for help after we claim we got lost in the woods. All we have to do is act politely, look cute and lie. That's how you get results."

"Jou're insane," Blitzwing spat. "Zat's how jou get killed! I refuse to let jou valk up to ze front door of zat place and end up having jour plan end horribly. If jou vant to even get near it, jou have to let me valk beside jou."

"I never said you had to tag along. It's me and my sister. Blitzwing, I am not standing around and letting you and Lugnut do everything. My brother is being held in that place and I want to save him. I promised my parents I would look after him and Amanda as if they were my own kids when I moved to Detroit and they wanted to experience life and move in with me. Darien was snatched from me and I intend on getting him back be it through the gates of Hell or a walk in the park. I'm sorry but you can't and won't stop me." She paused when she realized something. "Besides, I need to prove to Megatron that I am worthy enough to live and be kept around. If all goes well, my siblings and I get an 'A' for effort and an accomplished task."

"Really, I do understand vhere jou are coming from…" He didn't feel like saying outright that his brother was being held alongside hers captive. "I can sympathize. But vhat jou are doing is daunting and daring. Jou are going into zis place vith no veapons ozher zhan jour minds… Are jou absolutely determined to go about vith zis?"

"Yes. I won't accept any other options either. Once we get in and have them focus on us, then you and Lugnut can make your move and strike. It is only fair anyway."

Blitzwing hated her plan in all honesty. Because he loved her, he rightfully didn't want to place her in any harm that could endanger her life nor did he want her in the company of strangers, especially if they were men. However, he found himself admiring the valor and bravery she was exhibiting. She was well aware of the risks but to her, all that mattered was reuniting with Darien. He also didn't feel like picking a fight with her on a matter he knew he was going to lose against. Cyndi's mind was fixated on what she had cooked up and that was that.

"Fine," he said. "Just please be careful and don't do anyzhing extraordinarily stupid zat vill force me to come save jou."

"Don't worry about us," she reminded him. "You and Lugnut worry about destroying the place."

"How good of you to make yourself useful," Lugnut sneered. "I was wondering what you would come up with. I must admit I am interested in seeing how this will all end."

Blitzwing lowered Cynthia to the ground. She stepped out of his servo and joined Amanda by her side.

"I'm scared," the blonde said. "You know, now I think I'm not cut out to be a spy… I'm not James Bond!"

"Too late," her sister chimed in. "Now let's start walking. Looks like we have a mile or a mile and a half hike up to this place."

"It appears zat jour estimation is dead on," Blitzwing noted.

The monocle the blue face brandished zoomed in and out like a camera's focusing feature. He eyed the entrance to the facility that was situated at the base of the mountain. From what he could see, there was a gate complete with a guard's booth where two men were posted. Behind the gate, he could see a road that wound up the mountain, curling around it. Further up that road, he couldn't see much more except for a bend that forbade him a good view of the main compound.

"Looks like jou'll be going zhrough a gate and zhen I'm sure ze guards zhere vill take jou to ze inner infrastructure," he reported. "I vould offer to get jou closer to ze gate so jou have less of a distance to valk but Lugnut and I cannot afford to be seen for ze sake of zis operation."

"That's fine, thank you," Cyndi nodded. "Don't worry about me. I won't worry about you."

She grabbed Mandy's hand and began the walk to the gate.

(MECH laboratory)

The first thing Starscream saw when he came back fully online was a bright, white light. He panicked when he saw this, believing he had been killed and his soul was about to enter the Well of Allsparks. There was no way he could die at the hands of organics; it was a shameful, dishonorable way for a Decepticon, especially for the second in command, to go.

But as his optics adjusted and cleared, he could see that the luminescence was a large UV light that hung twenty feet above him. He could feel that he was lying down on his back. He shook his helm, trying to rouse himself out of his disoriented state.

"Where am I?" he slurred.

As he felt himself wake up a little bit more he tried to flex his limbs. However, it didn't take long for him to realize he couldn't even move them. Starscream tried to move again but with more failed results. His panic and fear set back in again.

The seeker attempted to sit up but he couldn't even do that. When he lifted his helm up to examine his body to find answers as to why he was immobile, he saw iron bindings that chained him down to a gigantic operating table of sorts. His spark raced more rapidly with each second that went by and he felt fear infiltrate his psyche.

Flashbacks of the attack that was made upon him by the Humans raced through his processor. He was reminded of the incredible pain that had rendered him completely helpless and weak. The assault had taken place in the woods but now he saw he was in a completely different environment. Starscream then concluded he had been kidnapped by intelligent rats.

"What the..!" He turned his head to the left, seeing a woman dressed in a gray lab coat. "Human, tell me what is going on!"

She was standing on a platform, looking down on him with her hands behind her back. The lady appeared to be in her middle thirties. She had brown hair that was pulled back into a low ponytail. On her face, she wore a pair of thin wire-rimmed glasses. Behind those spectacles, she had blue eyes that bore an air of arrogance and pleasure as she observed his unfortunate position.

"Don't mock me!" Starscream thundered. "Release me at once!"

"Not right now I'm afraid," she said silkily. She walked down a flight of metal stairs to lower herself to his level. "Consider it a great honor to be chosen."

"If you call that cowardly attack on me 'chosen'! I demand to know who you are and why you have done this to me!"

"I'm the technician in charge of this operation. Around here, I'm referred to as Dr. Conners. But you can call me by my first name; Samantha."

"Ah, you are the one who ordered those vermin to incapacitate me and bring me here!"

"Not really. My boss, Silas, brought you to me. From what I heard, it didn't take much for you to fall to your knees, Starscream. If our tests and research on you doesn't yield enough answers, we may have to borrow one of your friends. The purple and beige one called Blitzwing will truly be an enigma for us to decode. But some disassembly and reverse engineering is all we need to do."

Starscream had completely forgotten about his Decepticon bretheren. Surely they had to have known or suspected that something was wrong. Megatron might've already sent someone out to find out what happened to him. Then he remembered Darien.

"Where's the organic child?" he said.

"Silas is interrogating him," Samantha answered.

Silently, he cursed within his helm. Starscream was almost certain Darien was ratting out everyone. He personally believed it didn't take much to crack him open and get some answers.

Again, he flailed around in order to try to free himself from his bonds. There had to be a weak point somewhere and he was going to exploit it. Starscream snarled venomously as he did this, not taking his optics off of Dr. Conners.

"Femme, let me go and I just might spare you," he said. "All I want to do is squish your leader like the insect he is, take that Allspark shard and my Human friend and leave this place!"

"You might as well get comfy," Samantha sneered with a smile. Her eyes evolved into slits. "If God made Humans, I want to try to figure out who created you in his image."

"They'll come for me, I know it! If you don't let me go, the others will show up." He was smiling now. "And I promise you that you will sorely regret it. If your ringleader has the slightest ounce of brains, he should've seen this before he even set out to snatch me. As far as I know, you and every single wretched organic in this place is marked for death now. Did you forget that Decepticons are the ones you ought to be concerned about? If you want to cut a Cybertronian open, you should've chose an Autobot. It'd be one less thorn in my side either way."

"Silas has taken necessary precautions; we are prepared for any assault your friends could bring to the party."

"You underestimate us! That is your undoing, witch…"

Samantha walked down another flight of stairs. She walked out onto a platform that brought her extremely close to the restrained 'Con. Her hand extended and she tenderly yet analytically ran it down his cheek.

Starscream turned his helm to her and snapped his maw at her. He chuckled demonically when he saw her recoil in time, saving her hand from being bitten off.

On the other hand, she didn't find this the least bit amusing. Ire infiltrated her eyes and drove out the cold calmness and curiosity she had in them. Her nearly severed hand dug into a pocket in her lab coat, pulling out a device that looked like a stopwatch. She pressed a gray, rectangular shaped button on the bottom of the contraption.

A second after she did that, the sound of electricity sizzling filled the air. Nearly a fraction of a second later, Starscream's wails of agony joined in on the symphony. His body tried to arch in a natural instinct to escape the pain but the bindings kept him nearly immobile save for his digits and his helm.

"I guess we're not so different after all," she said. "How fascinating."

(…)

By the time the boy's narrative was done, Silas had smoked through another two cigars. The room now reeked of the cherry-like smell of the cigars whereas there was a faint hint of it earlier. Silas barely paid any notice to the aromatic scent and was completely absorbed by the tale. He was nothing but ears the entire time and had barely interrupted Darien for the duration of the telling.

Darien felt like he was winded when he finally wrapped up everything. It all spilt out of him like entrails from a gutted fish without much encouragement or restraint at all. He felt ashamed for informing Silas some of these things but he saw a light of hope in the form of the man. He had betrayed Megatron and he felt sick to his stomach for doing that but again, he had hope that Silas would help him and his sisters free them from their servitude to the Decepticons.

"Well, well, well…" Silas said after a moment of reflective silence. "Ain't that a cute little fairy tale?"

"That's it," Darien mumbled, tilting his head down.

"Okay, so they're in a mine that was ten miles south of where we captured you and your friends…" He slammed an open-palmed hand onto his desk. "I didn't think they were so close to my position there! Heh, well I guess it doesn't really matter now. Thanks to you, son, I know where it is."

"Now that I told you about them, could you help my sisters and I? Could you give us a place to hide until you take care of Megatron?"

"Boy, as grateful as I am for your information, I still can't wrap my head around the fact you planned to betray your race."

Darien felt like screaming in outrage over his latter statement. His eyes flared but he reminded himself to remain calm.

"Because I was forced to!" he said with obviously faltering serenity. "It was do or die! I regret it but now there's a chance to right my wrongs!"

"As I've said before, I am a proud patriot of my race," Silas said with solemnity. "True, I do admire alien lifeforms but I would never ally myself with one that is especially bent on the destruction of our race. If I was a government official, I'd try you and put you away in some prison forever for your treason. But I'm not going to do that."

"Look, please…"

"Hush up. Now I'm sure Megatron has noticed by now that something has gone wrong. I'm also pretty sure he's sent his two errand boys to find out what happened. And, according from your little tale, your sisters are probably clamoring about your whereabouts. That leads me to believe they're probably enroute with the two 'Cons. Actually, that's very likely since your eldest sister has no qualms about getting desecrated by one of them."

"What are you going to do? Please, don't hurt them!"

Silas rose out of his seat. He grabbed the pistol, threatening Darien with it and then deposited it in the halter on his waist. The aging man took one last puff on his cigar and then smothered it in the ash tray.

"I'm ready for whatever happens," he said. "That's all I can say. For now, since I am done talking to you, I will personally escort you to your prison cell where you will remain until further notice."

"B-b-but you can't hurt my sisters!" Darien protested. "Please, neither of them want to work for the 'Cons too!"

"Well your biggest sister has no problem with it if you ask me. She fell in love with one of them after all and she's still with…it." He placed a hand on the pistol's grip. "Now move."

Without any rebellion, Darien stood up from his seat and began to walk to the door. Silas followed close behind, keeping his hand hovering above his trusty magnum.

(…)

The guard stealthily looked over his shoulder, checking to see if his senior comrade was present within the hut. Upon seeing that he was nowhere to be seen, the man pulled out something from within a pocket in his jacket. The sound of paper crumpling reigned supreme within the quiet hut but this was silenced moments later. The guard didn't want his partner to know what he was doing.

"Oh, yes," he mumbled to himself.

The twenty-something year old male opened up the raunchy magazine and slowly began to unravel a centerfold within it. He nodded his head slowly and licked his lower lip. His eyes took in the sight before him, relishing it all. Being cooped up on this mountain with a bunch of other man chockful of raging testosterone and being exposed to little to no feminine contact was quite taxing on him. To him, it was a treat to even see a picture of a swimsuit model.

"Hey, asshole," a voice rang out suddenly.

The reading guard nearly fell backwards out of his chair. Before he could react, his magazine was torn out of his hands. A second later, he was hit upside the head with his confiscated reading material. He clutched his head, a little surprised that this all happened when he was quite sure his partner wasn't in the immediate area.

"Ben, come on!" the young man pouted. "No one ever comes up to this place! All we ever see are moose and bears!"

"Do you realize what would've happened if the boss came down here and saw you with this?" Ben, the elder guard said, shaking the magazine. "He'd shoot you in the forehead. You're lucky I have some concern for you, Jimmy. Now get up and let's stand outside like we're supposed to do."

"Fine, fine…"

Jimmy abandoned his seat and followed Ben out of the hut. The air was noticeably colder in contrast to the interior of the tiny shelter and this made chills run down Jimmy's spine. He zippered up his jacket and folded his arms across his chest to conserve some heat. He scanned the darkening woods surrounding the mountain, looking for anything of interest.

"Oh, guess what I see that's threatening our security," he said sarcastically.

"What?" Ben asked in a disinterested tone as he examined his fingernails.

"I see an owl. And you know what else?"

"Look, we were just told to be extra vigilant because the boss managed to snatch one of those robots. I don't want to get caught slacking off especially when our security efforts have to be doubled."

"Front gate, what's your status?" a voice sounded from the walkie talkie that was attached to the belt around Ben's waist.

Ben grasped the walkie talkie and brought it up to his mouth. He pressed a button on the side of it and parted his lips.

"Status secure, Captain Anders," he reported. "Not a soul in sight. Well, nothing except for cute, furry critters."

"Very good," the jittery, nervous MECH officer said. "You know Mr. Silas is counting on you two as the first warning system. Don't mess it up, please."

"Not at all, sir. We've got everything under control."

Anders said nothing reply, confident that the two men would serve their duties well.

Ben drew the walkie talkie back and placed it on his belt. He turned his attention back to Jimmy. When he did that, he saw that his compatriot was staring at something in the woods.

"What do you see?" Ben asked.

"Ben, look," Jimmy said with glee. "Babes!"

He rolled his eyes, disbelieving that he had to train such an idiot and a player of a young man. Jimmy was hardly interested in his job and was far more inclined to flirt with and maybe hook up with one of the very few female employees that worked for MECH. Fairly, he kept giving his pupil a chance but anymore, he found his patience ebbing with him. With women on his mind almost all the time, it was hard to place emphasis on anything else or try to stress the importance of his duties as a guard.

"Jimmy, I swear to…" Ben started, turning to the direction where Jimmy was looking at.

Ben couldn't actually believe it but there certainly were women walking up to the gate. From the look of it, there were only two of them. It was twilight now and he could barely make out their shapes but as they got closer, he could see they looked quite young. One of them appeared to be around Jimmy's age and her companion seemed to be in her late teens.

"Guess you're not lying or hallucinating there," he whispered. "Don't you say anything, let me deal with this."

"Ladies, is there anything I can help you with?" Jimmy waved at them and walked over to them.

"Goddammit, Jimmy…"

The junior guard stopped in front of them, blocking their path. He mustered up his most charming, debonair smile and hoped he looked presentable enough. He hadn't looked at himself in the mirror for half a day and he'd hate to look unworthy before them.

"What're two fine ladies like you doing in these woods?" he asked silkily, trying to employ his charms on them. "There're all kinds of dangerous animals up here in this part of Canada."

"You have no idea how happy and grateful we are to see someone like you," Cynthia feigned her anxiety. "You see, my sister and I got lost. We were on a hike and we decided to wander off the main trail to do some bushwhacking and then this happened."

"That really is a pity but that's okay. It really is easy to get lost here when you don't stick to the main trails."

"Yeah, unfortunately, we've been lost all day," said Amanda. "Now that it's dark out here, we don't really want to wander around the forest."

"I'm sure we can take you ladies in, no problem." He gestured them to follow him. "I'll take you to my supervisor, Ben, and he can contact his boss to see what to do."

Stupidly unaware of the ploy unfolding around him, Jimmy led the two women over to the gate where an irate Ben awaited his return. With his back turned to them, the young man silently mouthed 'thank you' while turning his eyes up to the heavens. Although they weren't supermodels spawned by his fantasies, Jimmy was just happy to see two young ladies around his age. The brunette had curves and a serene, pretty face and the blonde had a slim figure and comely, fresh looks; he didn't know which one to start hitting on first.

He led them the two hundred feet to the gate where he was posted. Cynthia and Amanda stopped a few feet behind Jimmy when he approached Ben to confront him about the situation. When he got close enough, Ben gruffly pushed past him and confronted the girls.

"Allow me to apologize on my coworker's behalf," Ben spat. "He's only been here for a few weeks."

"No, it's alright," Amanda dismissed the incident. "At least he knows how to treat women properly."

"How may I be of service to you ladies?"

"We got lost," Cynthia explained again. "As I just told your coworker, my sister and I were hiking and after making the dumb choice of doing some bushwacking off the main trail, we got lost. We've been wandering around for the past few hours and we were wondering if you could possibly shelter us for the night. We won't be bothersome and we'll leave in the morning."

"What're your names?"

"My name is Cecilia."

"And I'm Amara," Mandy lied.

"Thank you," Ben said.

He walked away from them so that he could contact his superior. Ben rejoined Jimmy. He elbowed him firmly in the side.

"Go watch after those two while I call Captain Anders about this situation," he instructed. "No sexual harassment, alright? Do that on your time off."

"Ben, you need to loosen your belt," Jimmy shook his head. "The few girls that work here are either crazy or cruel."

While Jimmy approached "Amara" and "Cecilia" to safeguard them, Ben grasped the walkie talkie. Once more, he brought it up to his face. For a moment, he paused to ponder over how he could word this situation to his superior. Then he pressed the button and spoke into the device.

"Captain Anders," he addressed.

A few seconds of silence went by.

"Yes?" the man replied a little while later.

"We have a tiny situation here up at the front gate."

"Out with it."

"We have two girls that stumbled across us here at the post. They told us that they were hiking and they got lost while doing some bushwacking off the main trail. They also wanted to know if we could possibly shelter them for the rest of the evening where they would remain until the morning."

"See, that is very curious…"

Ben hardened his gaze. He wet his lips.

"How so?" he asked his commander.

"I was just about to patch through an alert to all units on the premises that there might be a security breach attempted by Human agents working for the Decepticons," Anders explained. "I literally got this order from Mr. Silas himself a minute or two ago. When we retrieved the one Decepticon from earlier, there was a boy captured alongside him. That boy has two sisters and all three of them are working for them. Silas questioned him and the boy apparently told him a lot of things. The names of the ladies are Cynthia and Amanda."

"That's very unusual… Should we take them in and present them to Silas? There are two ladies here. I know his judgment is much better than mine with this situation in particular."

"Yes. I will send some men down there to take them off your hands and I will have them escort them to Silas. Proceed with business as usual."

"Yes, sir."

Ben clipped the device to his belt and turned around. He approached his coworker and the ladies. To put on a convincing masquerade to fool the suspected turncoats, he grinned affably at them.

"My supervisor is sending down some men to escort you to the main compound where we have some available quarters for you two to remain in for the evening," he said. "We'd do it ourselves but this is our station for the evening."

"That's not a problem at all," Cynthia said. "Thank you very much for your hospitality."

"It's not a problem at all, ma'am…"

* * *

><p><strong>Oh, a little heads up too. I'm considering deleting LIAL just because it feels like my eyes are getting violently raped by a 50ft tall monster lemon every single time I reread it. Lately, I haven't realized how bad it was until a few months afo and I'm simply befuddled as to why people keep favoriting such a story... But I'm still trying to figure out if I really want to take it down or not. I will inform you about my verdict soon. Thanks! :)<strong>


	42. Night on Bald Mountain pt 2

**Guys, thanks for the faves/reviews/alerts! Very much appreciated! So for this chapter, there's not much to say and you'll have to see for yourself with what goes on. All I'll really say is that there is some gorey death in this chapter so heads up if you're squeamish. You'll hate me even more in the next part because that is the most violent chapter I've written for this story yet. Enjoy the chapter and please review! **

Chapter 42 _Night on Bald Mountain _pt.2

(MECH inner compound)

The sisters had no clue where they were going or what to expect now that they were inside the mountain facility. Besides getting into the compound, their only other objective was to locate their brother and escape before Lugnut and Blitzwing could retrieve Starscream and dismantle the establishment. There was no way they wanted to stay around and end up getting crushed by a falling metal beam that had been knocked loose by a clumsy, destructive Decepticon. All they had to do was retain calm faces and assert that their aliases were their true identities. The only problem they were concerned with was finding Darien in time before things could get potentially ugly.

"Amara" felt terribly antsy and anxious about being in such close proximity to all these men who brandished high-powered assault rifles. Although she was the flightier one out of the two, she decided to not make any rash choices. To do so was to sign her death warrant. That would be carried out with a bullet through the forehead. All she did was just remain quiet and follow her sister's lead.

"Cecilia" also felt apprehensive and unsure about the conditions but her determination to remain stoic and seemingly innocent regarding her business was rock-solid. There was no room for mess-ups. There was no room for blantant failure. It was hit or miss. Success or defeat. Life or death.

The duo had no concept about what sort of hands they were in. They were completely oblivious as to what sort of facility they were being led through. As far as they could tell, it had to have been a bunker of some sort or a research compound, possibly a combination of both. According to Lugnut's evaluations, the Allspark fragment's signal was present within this mountain fortress but its signature was faint and muffled due to all the heavy rock and thick steel from which the hidden headquarters was constructed with. Unfortunately for them, the Humans had no way of knowing where exactly it was located; luck was going to have to help them in finding it.

Their curiosity was piqued when they entered a room that was rather cold and forlorn looking. It didn't take them long to see that they were being led into a sector of the complex that bore several empty holding cells. Two columns of these eight by eight foot cells ran down the length of a hallway. There were about eight of these cells on each side and they were all facing one another across the corridor.

The blonde swallowed hard when she realized this was a detention block. Cynthia felt some sweat bead up on the palms of her hands but she reminded herself that there was no room for weakness. She reminded Amanda of this by stealthily elbowing her in the ribs.

At the far end of the hall, there was a man who was walking away from the very last cell on the right side of the room. He was walking up to meet the women and their four armed escorts. They could see that he wore a personable, warm smile but as he approached them, the females could see nothing but cold sterness in his gray eyes.

"Well, I've been informed about your situation and I must say that I am sorry for your misfortune, ladies," Silas said, stopping a foot away from them.

"We hate to be a bother but we were really unlucky," said Amanda. "I hope you don't mind that we stay here for the night. We promise to be out of here in the morning!"

"That's perfectly understandable, young lady. I'd be a heartless host if I forced you out and made you brave the woods on your lonesome especially during the night." He extended a hand out to her. "Allow me to properly introduce myself… My name is Silas. I am the captain of this ship here."

Amanda took his hand and shook it.

"I'm Amara." She then gestured to Cynthia. "This is my sister, Cecilia."

"Ah, both of you are stunning young ladies," he said with a soft grin. "You're both the picture of innocence, ain't ya? Such prettiness can't lie, right?"

"Aren't you the charmer, Mr. Silas?" Cyndi noted.

"Oh, you can go now, gentlemen." He dimissively waved at the four guards who brought them to him. When they began to walk away and resume their previously prescribed duties, he resumed socializing with the sisters. "Yes, sometimes we have some wayward hikers and tourists who get lost when they stray off the trails and they wind up on our doorstep like an abandoned baby. Maybe you'll learn your lesson, eh?"

"Yes, especially when it's getting dark out!" Mandy forced a laugh out, trying to maintain the masquerade.

"It's especially interesting because there's this young fellow who said he got lost too. I took pity on the boy and I gave him a room to rest in until her feels he's ready to go…"

Cynthia glanced at the cells around her, seeing that they indeed were prison cells. There were toilets, a sink with a mirror hanging over it and a flimsy looking cot with equally pitiful blankets. A bad feeling swelled within her feet and quickly shot upwards, traveling through every single cell, capillary, digit and hair that was a part of her body. Silas' news about a boy especially made her tense and edgy. Could it be that Darien was in the same room she stood in?

"Really?" Cyndi asked. "How odd. Well, this is the perfect time of the year to go hiking in this beautiful region. Those trails that we walked on weren't very well maintained so it's no wonder that some people can't tell the difference between the park trail or a game trail."

"Indeed," Silas nodded. "That is quite the coincidence. He said he was separated from his family."

Without much thought at all, both Amanda and Cynthia knew it had to be their brother. But they kept quiet and remained as objective as possible so they wouldn't seem suspicious to Silas.

"That sucks," Amanda said softly. "How long has he been lost for?"

"Oh, he arrived here about a few hours before you two ladies did," said Silas. "He's in a disoriented state of mind. Would you mind if you kept him company for a little while?"

"No, that's not a problem at all," Cynthia tried her hardest to keep her feelings in check.

"He's in this block here. We do have quarters for the staff which spend a lot of time here but all those suites are filled unfortunately. We had to give him a room here in the cellblock."

"I…I guess that makes sense. You are cleverly hospitable."

"Thank you kindly, ma'am." He started to walk away from them. Then he paused and motioned for them to follow him. "Come on, he's down here."

With their hearts pounding and their minds racing, the duo trailed behind him. They weren't expecting to reunite with their brother in this way with his likely captor by their side. Their first and most instinctual reaction would've been to knock Silas out and grab their brother but they obviously were even ill equipped to even incapacitate someone.

Quietly, they allowed him to guide them to the farthest cell situated at the end of the block. The elder gentleman looked over his shoulder to face them but continued to walk.

"You see, he was separated from his family," he resumed. He stopped at the cell. "He has two sisters that he was hiking alongside with and he got separated from them when he went too far off into the woods to use the bathroom."

Cyndi and Mandy looked into the prison cell to confirm the horrible truth. They weren't surprised but they couldn't help to not widen their eyes and what they were seeing. The boy in the miniature, barred room was their brother.

They both froze, not knowing how to react in the slightest bit. More than anything else, they wanted to save him yet they didn't want to blow their cover. By revealing themselves and acting overtly brash would guarantee sabotage for themselves. Neither did they want to pull the veil back until they got the signal from their Cybertronian allies…

Darien knew that had to have come sooner or later since he knew that his sisters were fiercely protective of him. He also knew for a fact that they couldn't have made the journey to the beautiful yet austere and wild north by themselves on such short notice; they had assistance. When he made all these realizations, he felt both glee and dread. There was glee because he was confident he was going to be rescued. And there was dread because he felt it would only be a matter of time before it would be made known that he had betrayed his sisters and his superiors.

"Does this boy look familiar?" Silas asked, well aware of the deceit played out before him.

"No," Cynthia lied. She felt awful for saying this but she knew that if she showed any signs of sentimentality and concern, everything would be in jeopardy. "I've never seen him before in my whole life."

Amanda said nothing, a little startled that she had denied Darien even though they were staring into each other's eyes. She wet her lips and a droplet of sweat formed around her hairline. A second later, she felt it slide down her forehead.

"I expected to you say something like that, Cynthia," Silas cruelly noted. "I should've known you'd deny your own brother to protect your lover, you lying, traitorous snake."

Silas slammed the palm of his hand on a control panel that was next to the cell. The heavy, iron bars swept open. Before the three siblings could react to this, the man brusquely shoved Amanda into the cell. Darien abandoned his seat on the cot and caught her in his arms before she could take a nasty tumble to the hard, concrete floor.

Upon seeing this all happen, Cyndi attempted to punch him in the side of his face and knock him to the ground. Silas saw her assault and batted her fist away and then countered by striking her square in her nose with his own fist.

The woman coughed immediately after this happened since her air supply was momentarily cut off by the punch. The way his fist slammed into the cartilage that supported her nose made it feel as if it was broken but she could tell he didn't mean to hit her that hardly where there would be a fracture. Her hands came up to her nose and to soothe and try to fight the pain that accompanied the blow. She could feel a warm stream of blood ooze from her right nostril.

"Oh, please," Silas grinned. "That was a weak punch too. I don't want your nose broken anyway. I need you in decent condition."

Growling furiously and narrowing her eyes, Cyndi launched herself at him.

"He's got a gun!" Darien yelled.

This made her stop in her tracks. As soon as she halted, she saw Silas pull his pistol out of his halter. Earlier, she took no notice of it. He pulled the hammer back with the tip of his thumb and pointed it at her.

"Woah, there," he said with a crooked smirk. "Let's not be hasty. We've already got enough on our hands and we don't need a crazy young woman ruining things."

"Let my brother and sister go," Cynthia warned. "We know you have Starscream too so you may as well surrender him. I'm telling you this because to be honest, I don't like the thought of all these people in this building dying."

"I'm fully aware of why you're giving me that warning and I can assure you that everything is under control. I had a relatively small group to harvest the one called Starscream and he was dealt with quite easily. All the men I have here can deal with whatever force you brought with you."

Cyndi eyed the pistol nervously. She flexed her fingers and didn't dare to look away from the gun for fear Silas would shoot her without a moment to lose. Daringly, she looked back at him.

"Look," she said slowly, "I just do as I'm told…"

"Shut up," he cut off, "I know your story. Your baby brother told me everything about it." Silas' finger hovered above the trigger. "Now be a good girl and go into the cell with these two. After we properly deal with these reinforcements of yours, I'll deal with you."

Grudgingly accepting things were not in her favor, Cynthia raised her hands in a surrendering gesture, displaying to him she wasn't going to rebel further. She walked over to the cell which contained Darien and Amanda. Seconds later, she entered it and Silas shut the barred door behind her.

"Make yourselves at home," he said. "Now if you don't mind, I have more important things to devote my time to."

Without another word, Silas walked away.

(Laboratory)

Starscream groaned lowly but in obvious pain. The way he lowed sounded like a wounded, gored rhinoceros which was on its way out of the world after a disastrous, failed season. Every single inch of his chassis hurt him immensely down to the tips of his wing struts down to the boosters in his stabilizing servos. All that electricity that flowed throw him had weakened him and had sapped his will to fight. Even when he wasn't flailing around trying to escape, the heartless doctor still electrocuted him just to see how he would react.

As his body had been drained, so was his spirit. With each waking, conscious moment that went by, Starscream was despondently becoming convinced that he was doomed. No one was going to be able to save him in time. Because of his pride, he much preferred that he save himself but at this point, he would've been grateful for anyone's kind intervention. Now it was all just a farfetched fantasy. There really was no help coming. He thought at that point that Megatron was just apathetic about his disappearance and didn't even bother to send someone to find him.

In his desperate thoughts, he wondered if Blitzwing felt as apathetic and indifferent as Megatron if that was the cause of this inaction. It made his spark wrench in disgust at the thought but he wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. He couldn't even recall the last time the two embraced one another; it was most likely when they were both younglings. Back then, they were practically inseparable. Now, they had no qualms about tearing each other apart.

The seeker closed his optics. More than anything else, he wished he could speak to him telepathically. Earlier, he had attempted to comm his fellow 'Cons but his efforts were wasted when he found out the Humans jammed it. He really was rendered completely and utterly helpless much to his chagrin.

Agonizingly, he curled his servos into fists. It was such a grim and harsh reality to accept but now he was persuaded that he was indeed going to perish at the machinations of the hostile organics. Starscream would never want to admit to anyone or himself that he could finally break and give up. But all the failed efforts of escape and the massive pain inflicted upon him had done such a horrid thing to his psyche.

"Doctor, we're finally ready," an engineer informed the head of the operation.

Starscream refused to open his optics.

"Ah, good," she said eagerly. "That prepping took a little longer than I had anticipated but better late than never."

He could hear her flats on the catwalk off to his left. Starscream still defiantly kept his inorganic eyes shut. He was so disgusted and felt so ashamed of himself and his fate that he didn't want to see anything else before this mad scientist would butcher him.

"Starscream," she said, "are you ready? I surely hope you are because I am. You ought to feel honored that you are the first inorganic, sentient alien lifeform that MECH is to dissect."

"I hope Unicron himself crawls out of the blackest depths of the Pit to hunt you down and burn your soul," he cursed her. "Doctor, I will be avenged."

"Yes, we'll see about that… I like you better when you scream believe it or not."

Off to his far right, he could hear some sort of machine whir to life. He tightened his optics shut even further since he really wasn't keen on seeing the giant drill that was poised to bore into his cranial cavity. His jaws clenched and he readied himself for whatever more torture and horror he would be subjected to. In the back of his helm, he prayed that a freak and desperate outburst of strength would possibly allow him to free himself. Or, someone would show up and save him from being turned into a gray, hollow shell.

(Gate)

Jimmy was completely infatuated and obsessed with the two women who were escorted up the mountain a half an hour earlier. All his lusty, hormonal thoughts were centralized on them both. His mood was upbeat and chipper and life was just perfect for him at that point. Seeing these two ladies walk out of the blue had made his lonesome shift worth it. He had plans on finding out where they were bunked for the evening as soon as he was done with his shift. The young man had it all planned out; flirt, a few dates and then bed. The most unpleasant thing about the whole situation was that Jimmy didn't know whom to pick out of "Cecilia" and "Amara".

"Ben," he pouted, "I need your advice!"

"As far as we know, they could be 'Con agents like I explained to you after they went up the mountain," Ben droned.

"But we don't know for sure. Ben, they were too cute to be working for them."

"Yes, that's how they trick you. They're women, Jimmy. They lie, deceive and steal all your money. I've gone through two divorces and that's what they taught me. Thank God I didn't have any kids with those crazy women."

"That sucks but you sound unlucky. Anyway, which one do you think I should pick? I can't decide! I'm thinking about visiting them after I'm done tonight."

"Well, good luck because I don't think they gave a shit about you."

"You're just jealous." Jimmy smiled smugly. "I bet I can have both of those lovely leadies eating out of the palm of my hand. Ben, did I ever tell you I was the quarterback for my highschool football team and I was the prom king? I'm a natural born babe magnet!"

Ben tuned him out when he started rambling. He rolled his eyes and began to idly march along the length of the gate. The elder guard began to whistle a random tune to drown out the noise of his coworker's egotistical tales of his endeavors. At times, he truly didn't know how he managed to survive a shift without killing either Jimmy or himself.

Jimmy stopped raving about his ladykilling abilities and Ben halted with his irate pacing when they both heard a sound come from the woods. It sounded like a log that had been crushed loudly as if a sauropod stepped on it. The two guards almost ceased to even breathe as they half expected a grizzly bear to come roaring out of the woods and charging at them.

"Ben..?" Jimmy whispered. "What was that? It was so loud! It sounded like a tree exploded or something!"

Ben said nothing in reply and promptly walked back to the hut. He walked in and a few seconds later came back out with his rifle. With a stern, brave look on his face, he held it out in front of his body and placed a finger on the trigger. His eyes scanned the treeline, looking out for the source of the disturbance.

"Please, answer!" Jimmy said in earnest. "I'm ready to piss myself here!"

"_Oh Mickey, jou're so fine, jou're so fine, jou blow my mind, hey Mickey, hey Mickey!_" a voice sang out from the woods. "_Oh Mickey, jou're so fine, jou're so fine jou blow my mind, hey Mickey, hey Mickey!_"

"Who goes there?!" Ben shouted. "State your business here! This is a private government facility and we do have deadly authorization to shoot at any trespassers!"

Jimmy tried to stare off into the woods to try to identify this odd intruder but it was so dark even though his eyes had adjusted to the dark. An absolutely rancid feeling formed in the pit of his stomach that made him want to throw up. He didn't know what it was but he felt things were going to turn very badly very quickly.

"B-Ben," he lightly hesitated. "Maybe we should call Captain Anders…"

The way the intruder sang the song was almost degrading and taunting. Ben immediately took this as a personal assault since he was still irked with having to deal with Jimmy.

"Jimmy, hold your position and shut the Hell up," he snapped back. "I'm gonna catch this goon and put a bullet through his big, thick, stupid skull."

"Some man jou are!" a different voice boomed from the darkness. "I'm sure ze ladies like a big coward, don't zhey?"

"Ben…" Jimmy began to fidget nervously. "Ben, please!"

Ignoring him completely, Ben stomped off into the direction where the two voices came from. He readied his rifle to shoot the intruders on sight.

When he melted in with the dark shadows cast by the trees, Jimmy bolted from his position at the front of the gate. He ran into the hut and threw the chair that was sitting next to the desk aside. Cowering, he crawled beneath the desk and curled up, pulling his legs close to his chest.

"Something's not right, something's not right…" he murmured to himself. "When I get a bad feeling like this, I know something's gonna happen!"

He was half-tempted to place his hands over his ears but he needed confirmation. Quaking, he carefully listened to the woods around him, just waiting to hear his supervisor speak again or to even listen to the taunts of the two accented men.

The seconds that rolled by felt like centuries to him. His heart was pounding ruthlessly in his chest and his breathing became labored. He could almost feel his pupils dialate. Already, he could've sworn that his entire body was covered in a chilling layer of cold sweat. He hoped all this terror he felt was all for naught…

Then he heard Ben a mere two minutes after he disappeared. He sounded panicked and spooked. With each second that passed, his distress grew and it seemed as if he didn't know how to react to the situation even with his gun.

He screamed at the top of his lungs. Jimmy heard a tremendous roar as if there was a giant furnace gushing fire out in the forest somewhere. There was a short burst of fire from the gun that didn't even last a second and then nothing. Not a single owl hooted.

"Ben…" Jimmy was near tears. "He's dead!"

A few seconds later, he heard something like rocks land on the roof of the hut. Jimmy screamed shrilly at this loud disturbance and retreated from his hiding spot beneath the table, flipping it over completely. He could hear whatever was on the roof slide down it slowly.

There was a thump, signaling that whatever was on the roof had fallen off and hit the ground. Gathering up what courage he could, the young guard inched over to the entrance of the hut. He peered out, seeing a few flickering flames licking at some unknown objects on the ground.

"What is this..?" he mumbled aloud.

When he got closer, he could see a charred, disarticulated skeleton before his eyes. Flames licked at the bones and at his feet, Ben's skull stared emptily back at him with his jaws opened wide.

Jimmy's color had left him and he almost died of shock at the sight before him. He regained control of himself and ran off screaming like a raging lunatic towards the gate he guarded.

"Captain Anders!" he wailed. "Someone! Something's here and it roasted Ben alive! There's a talking dragon in the woods!"

Before he could attempt to climb over the gate despite the fact barbed wire ran over the height of it, he felt something large and firm grab him. It felt as if a huge, metal hand had snatched him up and began to compress the air out his lungs. As it turned out, that's exactly what it was.

It all happened so quickly that the organic man couldn't process what exactly was going on in his state of delirium and deep terror. What he did know and realize as the seconds rolled by was that he was held in the deadly grip of a very overprotective, vengeful and unstable Decepticon.

Blitzwing sneered at the frightened Human in his hand. Right from the moment he flirted with Amanda and Cynthia when they first approached the gate, he was determined to claim his life. When he eavesdropped on Ben and Jimmy's earlier conversation about which girl to claim, it just made him all the more irked and jealous. The arrogance of the organic appalled him especially when he announced so assuredly that no woman could resist him, Cynthia included. When he then saw how much of a chicken-hearted wimp he was, all the triple changer could do was soak it all in.

"Sorry, jou're not getting lucky vith my femme," Hothead's voice dripped of flaming venom. "She doesn't like cowards and little boys. She's mine!"

"W-w-w-what're y-you talking a-a-about?!" Jimmy stuttered wildly. "I'm not trying to s-s-steal anyone from you! I don't think I could get lucky with a giant robot girl anyway!"

"Who said she vas one of my own kind?" He smirked darkly. "My femme vas one of zhose seemingly innocent vomen who just valked up ze mountain. Jou know, one of ze ones jou planned on vooing." The smirk faded quickly in no time at all. "Ze brunette is mine."

"I'll stay away from her! I was thinking I'd get luckier with the blonde anyway because she's younger and more attractive!"

Jimmy grievously regretted that choice and structure of vocabulary when he could feel the servo constrict around him even tighter. He groaned in agony, feeling that his ribs were ready to be snapped at any second. In vain, he attempted to worm his way out of Blitzwing's strong hold.

Preferring to let actions deal with the situation, the triple changer applied more pressure on the Human is his servo. When he did this, there was a sickening crack as his entire skeleton was shattered like a fine glass figurine. As soon as Jimmy was dealt this blow, he was killed instantly. Blood began to trickle from his tear ducts, ear canal and from his mouth and Blitzwing could feel the organic's corpse had become completely limb and lifeless in his servo. He smiled proudly at the fact he had avenged the honor of his love.

"Ze universe can manage vithout jou, scum," he said.

Looking at the body with pure objectivity as if it was a candy wrapper, Blitzwing tossed it aside. He didn't even glance behind to see where the cadaver landed but he heard it crash through some branches where it eventually thumped to the ground a few seconds later. Blitzwing then turned his optics up to the sky, seeing an object that was hovering above and blended in cleverly with the night.

"Lugnut, ze guards at ze gate have been taken care of," Icy reported through his comm. "Let's take out zheir power lines and get zis done and over vith." He could hear shouting from some other guards that heard the desperate commotion from their comrade at the gate. "Hurry now, ze Humans are becoming avare of our presence."

(…)

The engineer who was leaning back in his seat and enjoying a dinner that consisted of potato chips was disturbed when he heard an alarm go off. He nearly choked on a chip he was chewing on and spewed it out of his mouth to prevent such a calamity from happening. With his eyes perusing the control panel before him, he examined the area from where the alarm was originating from him.

"Now what in the Hell…" he mumbled, studying a security camera screen that was situated atop one of the electrical towers. A large silhouette had whooshed past it and towards the ground at a swift speed. "What the..!"

He could then hear something that sounded like a train racing above the building. With each second, it grew louder and louder.

Before he could do much of anything else, there was an ear-shattering boom. The roof above him caved in on him in fiery and explosive splendor.

(…)

One powerful, momentum and velocity-built blow from Lungut's infamous Punch had obliterated the power station. The huge 'Con stood amongst the rubble of the ruined building, not caring at all for the organic lives lost during that explosion. He looked at his stabilizing servos, checking to see if there were any Humans plastered to the bottom of them.

The shutter on his large optic closed and narrowed as he studied the power lines that snaked across a tiny valley and toward the main facility where Starscream and the Allspark shard were being kept. Walking over to the towers that supported the lines, he clamped his pincher-like servos together. When he made it over to one of the towers a moment later, he tore it apart with his servos and brought it down to the ground. As a result of doing that, the lines snapped, depriving the main compound of power.

Lugnut looked back across the valley seeing that the spot lights and flood lights that dotted the compound abruptly shut off as the power had been cut off. Within a matter of seconds, it was all in darkness and he could hear men shouting in confusion. Towards the front gate, he could see Blitzwing rip the obstruction out of the the way. At the same time, he could see a group of armed guards rush towards the invading Decepticon.

The larger 'Con adopted his vehicle mode and glided across to the other side of the MECH headquarters with the intentions to aid his comrade.

(…)

Starscream had never shut his optics so tightly before. He could almost feel the tip of the drill up against the side of his helm. Within the private confines of his metal cranium, he was screaming so loudly and he didn't dare to utter even outloud. He at least needed to maintain whatever sliver of dignity he had left in the hour of his demise. Going out like a coward was unacceptable and not fitting for a bot of his power and status.

The seeker swallowed and clenched his servos into fists. He ground his jaws in nervous anticipation and if he was Human, he'd be sweating a waterfall. All this suspense was terribly and cruelly unbearable. He almost wished the drill would that was inching closer to the side of his helm would bore into it already. At least the pain would be excruciating but brief as he would then offline.

Then he heard a faint rumbling noise despite the fact that the drill was literally inches away from his helm. It sounded as if there was an explosion that happened outside the mountain. Starscream could hear the drill slowly power down and its march to the side of his metal head was halted.

With hope in his spark, he opened up his optics. The room was in darkness and he could hear the engineers present mumble amongst each other nervously.

"What's going on?" he mumbled to himself.

"A momentary setback," the doctor said broodingly. "Looks like your friends came to save you after all. But don't get too hopeful. We are properly equipped."

Starscream could only cackle softly. His optics gleamed even more brightly in the pitch dark room. They cast off an eerie, almost demonic glow.

"The question is this, dear doctor…" he said. "Can they be stopped before they find and release me? As soon as I am released from these bonds, I will have my revenge and you will be the powerless one as you are destined to be."

(…)

Amanda turned her head upwards when the single light that hung up on the cell's ceiling began to flicker. A second later, it went out completely in unison with all the other lights in the detention block. Just before the lights went out, she and her siblings heard a massive explosion even through the thick walls of the mountain fortress and the natural elements that surrounded it.

She walked over to the bars and leaned against them when she heard a few guards talk to each other in raised voices. As she listened more closely, she could've sworn that they were listening to a radio of some sort. She quickly eliminated that possibility when she eavesdropped more on their conversation.

"_Requesting reinforcements now!_" a voice screamed over the presumed radio which was actually a walkie talkie. "_We have two hostile inorganic aliens attacking us!_" There were screams and explosions in the background. "_We need all the help we can get, they're killing us all!_"

After the latter sentence, the speaker on the other line of the walkie talkie screamed in agony. In the background, there was wild laughter and then the soft, droning, monotonous sound of static.

"We need to go out and try to fight them off," one of the guards said.

"Silas said we need to watch the prisoners," another countered. "That's what we'll do. There're many others who can answer the call."

"I'll go out and you stay here," a third voice said. "Alec and I will go out and you remain with the prisoners."

The middle sibling smirked when she tuned in and listened to the conversation the three guards had. Lightly, she bit her lower lip and mulled over a plan she was concocting while eavesdropping. Her fingers slowly encircled around the bars as he remained deep in thought to consider all points of her plot.

"It'll only be a matter of time, Darien," Cynthia said comfortingly. She sniffled and wiped a droplet of blood that oozed from her nostril. "We'll be out of here before we know it. The power's out and that's a sign that Blitzwing and Lugnut are doing ther part now."

"What're we going to do, sit in here until they rescue us?" Darien asked. "The power's out and that control panel doesn't work because of it."

The blonde smiled at last and pulled her hands away from the bars. She turned around and huddled close to her brother and sister. Wearing a confident grin she leaned in close to them.

"We can get out of here ourselves," she said. "There's only one guard watching us now because the other two are going to go out and try to stop Blitzwing and Lugnut. I think we can take him. I have a plan to bust ourselves out of here."

Without even waiting for their approval to go on have them comment on her idea, Amanda whispered to them what she had in store…

* * *

><p><strong>I forgot to mention... As for the question whether to scrap or keep up LIAL, I still haven't come to a decision. So, for now, it's going to stay up and if you simply can't find it anymore, it's because I finally did decide to take it down. Thanks :)<strong>


	43. Night on Bald Mountain pt 3

**Thank you for the reviews/faves/alerts everyone! Okay, so this is longest chapter to date with some reasons. It wraps up (somewhat) of the whole MECH ordeal. But even after this chapter ends, MECH will still play a role in one way or another as the story goes on. There's a likelihood that their influence will remain until the very end to be honest. This chapter is the primary reason why it took me forever to update too. It took me two months to write this thing because I simply didn't know how to have it go about the way I wanted it to. If it seems rushed or a bit odd/weird, my apologies; I'm not even really satisifed with it as it is. As I mentioned in the last chapter, heads up: tons of death and some scenes will be especially graphic. So if you're squeamish, beware. Enjoy the chapter!**

Chapter 43 _Night on Bald Mountain _pt.3

(laboratory)

The clamor was encroaching closer onto the subterranean lab. The engineers and technicians gathered together in the dark room, seeking sanctity amongst each other and simply hoping for the best. They could hear explosions and some could've sworn that they could hear the screams of the guards even through the mountain. Some present believed they were doomed. Some others were convinced that the Humans would win this bout and end up with three carcasses to dissect instead of one.

Dr. Conners had managed to keep her cool and forced herself to remain patient and hopeful. Showing even temporary, fleeting weakness in front of her subordinates was unacceptable. She had to empower those under her control and crush the hope of her captive at the same time. The doctor caught herself biting her nails a few times under the cover of the dim conditions but quickly withdrew her digit when she'd bump into one of her associates.

While the organics cowered, their giant test subject had no fear in his spark. More than anything else, he felt arrogantly confident and amused with how things had been turned to his favor. He just knew that Blitzwing and Lugnut would have to show up sooner or later. Since the power had been cut, Starscream wore a large, toothy grin; he just knew what was going to unfold in time.

"Last chance," he warned. "Good Doctor, pray release me from these bonds. This is your final warning. If you refuse, then there is no hope for you and all the other miserable organics on this mountain." A powerful tremor occurred, shaking the darkened lights above him and knocking an engineer off his feet. "Do you hear it? That is the sound of my friends. They've realized I've been absent for far too long and they came after me. Flattering and touching really…"

"Shut it," the woman spat back at him. She grumbled an incoherent curse and folded her arms across her chest. "You are lucky that the power knocked out my remote too. I'd send another wave through you."

"Aren't you so pleasant and full of sunshine? Anymore, I'm starting to see there's no difference between Earthling and Cybertronian femmes…"

Another muffled boom rocked the room. When this happened, a few of the technicians and crew members began to panic.

"Save your breath," Samantha scolded them. "We'll make it through this no matter what. If we can take down one with a small task force, we can take down the other two with everyone here."

Starscream snarled at her statement. His honor had still been damaged and was hurting like an open sore rubbed with salt. The seeker's arrow-like, borderline raptor optics narrowed at the organic femme.

"It was unfair!" he reminded her. "Had I been equally prepared as you roaches, things would be far different! You'd be the one on the dissecting table! Better yet, you'd be a pile of ashes that had been carried off by the winds!"

Samantha pushed her glasses further up her nasal bridge. She looked into his optics which was the only source of luminescence in the room. Huffing austerely, she turned on her heels and walked away from him.

Starscream's smile only grew. He chuckled to himself.

"Bots, I'm here!" he exclaimed. "Come and get me!"

(compound exterior)

Upon seeing that his comrade had been crushed under the hefty foot of the large green and purple invader, the guard began to crawl away to the best of his hindered abilities. After recieving two broken legs in the midst of this hectic, losing battle, he had gone into a primeval survival mode. The mixture of adrenaline and other life-saving hormones which raced through his stressed body offered him newfound but temporarily replenished strength.

He began to crawl to the cover of an overturned jeep. At least he could hide himself and wait for the heat to blow over. Once the alien machines were finished with their business, he'd call for help. Fighting back at this point was utterly pointless.

Then he felt a tremor that travelled through the ground beneath him. With each inch he moved, the tremor repeated and became more powerful…

"AHH!" He dared to look over his shoulder. When he did, he saw a macabre, nightmarish version of a jack-o-lantern staring back at him. "No, no, no, no!"

"Ooh, look at zis!" Random twiddled his digits eagerly. "It appears I've left a straggler! Zat's no good… After all, no one must live!"

Frantically, the gunman diverted his course when he saw a discarded rifle about ten feet away from his position. His shattered legs greatly hindered his efforts but he refused to go down without a fight. He hyperventilated wildly, trying to calm himself to the point where he could possibly ensure his survival. The man was fully aware of just how dangerous this titanic creature was yet he resolved to at least take out one of his eyes before he'd get smashed to death.

"Aha, look at ze Human crawl like a caterpillar!"

"Son of a-…"

His fingers stretched out for the rifle. Simultaneously, he could see a huge shadow engulf his form. A red, eerie glow shone on him as the shadow became heavier. He could've sworn the Decepticon was breathing down his neck, making his hairs stand up.

"Got..!"

The fingers were grazing the gun's grip now. He let loose an agonized wail as his shin bone poked through his flesh and jabbed his pant leg. One last reserve of adrenaline was let loose into his bloodstream. The man lurched forward and managed to grasp the weapon.

"IT!"

He sat up onto his rump and faced Blitzwing. Then he aimed the gun directly at the currently dominant face. The black and red face was hovering a mere ten feet above his battered body. His face bore a heavy frown and he readied his weapon to shoot at the vital areas on the triple changer's face.

"AAHHHHH!"

His pointer finger fell on the trigger and a spray of bullets shot out from the magazine, up the barrel and to Blitzwing's face. The guard screamed loudly and proudly while he shot at him, trying to make himself die like a hero. The man's stare was merciless and fixed on his attacker, refusing to look away from his visage. Recoil from the gun pounded against his collar bone but this didn't matter to him. All that mattered was trying to incapacitate this extraterrestrial monster.

The bullets didn't harm Blitzwing at all, not even creating dents in his face. They merely flattened as soon as they came into contact with the superior alloy and fell to the ground around the guard. He giggled at the Human's efforts, thinking that raiding this mountain fortress was much too easy. Since they had captured Starscream, he perceived them to be a greater threat.

The organic then stopped firing when he saw that his volley of bullets was merely making this beast laugh at him. He sighed heavily, and dropped the gun into his lap. Right then and there, he knew there was no possible way he was going to make it out alive.

"I must give jou some credit," Icy remarked. "But jou should have stood still and allowed me squash jou like ze cockroach zat jou are. Zis is getting razher tiresome."

"Ha, that's what you think!" The guard laughed and shot him a sly grin. "You won't claim me!"

As quickly as he could, he brought the rifle up to his face. He placed the barrel up to the side of his head. The guard smirked at Blitzwing, believing he would rob him of another kill.

"Sorry!" he said.

He pulled the trigger so he could shoot his own brains out.

However, although he did hear a click, nothing happened. His eyes widened to the size of watermelons.

Again, he pulled the trigger.

Click.

Again.

Click.

"No..!" He said loudly. "I'm out!"

Icy smiled haughtily at his victim's failed suicide attempt. Hothead then promptly replaced him.

"Looks like I'm supposed to kill jou," he said. "Take it like a mech, coward!"

Before the man could react, a massive fist crashed into him. The fist had flattened him completely. Blood and gore seeped from beneath the deadly servo.

Then he drew his servo back and shook it, making blood rain down.

"Ugh, I much preferred my stabilizing servo," Icy huffed. "I'd razher have his intestines encrusted into my sole instead of ze joints in my digits…"

"It looks like I have spaghetti on my servo!" Random laughed at the gruesome destruction on his fist. "I vonder vhat Human spaghetti tastes like…"

Before Icy or Hothead could restrain him from fulfilling his morbid curiosity, Lugnut thankfully intervened. He grasped Blitzwing by his shoulder and pulled him away from the squashed organic. Then he propped him up to his full height and gave him a scolding stare.

"We cannot play with these insects any longer, Blitzwing," he said. "We have decimated their forces around the outer premises and now we must locate Starscream, meet up with our allies and retrieve the Allspark fragment."

"I got carried avay for a moment!" said Random. "I haven't had so much fun terrorizing Humans before! Cyndi doesn't like it vhen I do it but zis is an exception! In speaking of Cyndi, I almost forgot about her!" He cackled elvishly. "She's not happy vhen she is kept vaiting!"

"Then let us continue onward."

The two Decepticons recklessly stepped over the carnage and ruins they had created and pressed forward towards the main complex. Lugnut led Blitzwing, taking control of the situation and secretly wanting to get the mission done and over with so he could report to his lord. He guided the triple changer over to an entrance that was sealed off by a huge, thick steel door. When he reached the foot of the obstruction, he stopped.

"Stand back, Blitzwing, I'm about to use The Punch," he said.

"Looks like jou finally varned me about using it," Hothead folded his arms across his chest. "I appreciate ze zhought. Now break it down before I do!"

Building up as much power as he could, Lugnut braced his favorite punching arm. Flames shot out from an exhaust pipe at the back of the fist, which would help build up some extra momentum and assist him in gaining an extra bit of strength in launching the explosive blow. He waited for a few seconds and then with a growl of effort and determination, thrust forward.

The imposing, seemingly impregnable door proved to be a minor setback and annoyance to Lugnut's brute strength as he tore a hole clean through it. Mixed in with the explosion of The Punch, the sounds of Human screams resonated as the guards hiding behind the barrier fled in terror. The two Decepticons entered, having to lower their helms and not smack them off the top of the gaping hole.

"Fall back!" a random guard screamed at the top of his lungs. "Every man for himself!"

A few ran off down into the dark, rocky tunnel which lead deeper into the mountain. Some guards chose to be brave and valiantly held their ground against their much larger adversaries and try to buy some time for the escapees. The panicked voices of men echoed off the craggy cylindrical walls and mixed in with the droning volleys of gunfire that was directed onto the Decepticons.

"We cannot let these germs regroup and prove to be of further resistance as we push on," Lugnut said to his partner. "I would use my missiles to eliminate them but I do not wish to cause a cave-in which would only serve as a hindrance to our progress."

"So, in ozher vords, I do all ze vork," Hothead snapped at him. Then he smirked grimly. "Fine by me."

Both of his cannon barrels came down, resting just above his shoulders. A few seconds later, two streams of fire came gushing out of the barrels, engulfing any unfortunate organic men. Blitzwing walked forward, mercilessly torching them and crushing anyone who got in the way of his stabilizing servos. Lugnut walked behind him, letting him do all the work and picking off any screaming men who ran about on fire.

"According to my scanners," Lugnut resumed, "there is a huge room beneath this mountain. And I'm picking up on a very familiar signature…"

"Starscream," Blitzwing said with some relief in his voice. "How far ahead do ve have to continue on vith zis march?"

"About a few thousand feet ahead, there is another door. And beyond that, there seem to be more obstructions. It seems that the Humans are at least semi-prepared for an attack. Too bad that they have heavily underestimated us! This would've been the perfect trap for an Autobot though!"

"Oh-ho-ho!" Random had replaced Hothead but still maintained the streams of fire flowing out of his cannon barrels. "Zis is some barbecue!"

Lugnut rolled his optic and ignored the temporarily dominant persona.

(…)

The prison guard nearly went into cardiac arrest when he heard someone scream behind him. He leaned back so quickly in his seat that the chair toppled backwards and he rolled off it and onto the floor. Breathing heavily, he hastily stood back up onto his feet and brushed himself off.

With the "code red" and shrilly obnoxious warning sirens going off, his nerves were on end and quite frayed. He could almost feel the floor beneath him shake from the explosions that rocked the mountain. Sweat was pouring from his forehead and more than anything else, he wanted to run away, never return and never even reflect or regale on his time in MECH's employment. He was willing to do whatever it took to escape; only the fear of Silas finding out that he abandoned his post was what held him back.

"We need some help!" Cynthia yelled. "My sister is having a very bad panic attack! She needs medical attention to calm her down! Please, I need to give her sedatives!"

The guard grabbed the walkie talkie that was sitting on the table where he sat at. Gulping, he pressed a button on its side and spoke into it.

"Mr. Silas, sir?" he said waveringly. "I have a situation in here regarding the three prisoners…"

With dwindling patience, he waited for a reply of some sort from his superior. He put two fingers up to his neck to check his own pulse to see just how quickly his heart was pounding. The man breathed laboriously, trying to calm himself down.

"Please, help us with her!" Darien called out. "She can't stay in this state for too long or she'll end up being hospitalized! She has a serious condition!"

To add more trauma and pressure to the situation, Amanda half cried and half screamed. The man could've sworn he could almost literally feel his blood pressure spike. He ground his teeth anxiously and mulled over the matter.

Then he threw down the walkie talkie and ran over to the far off cell to confront the situation himself. He stopped just short of it to prevent himself from falling flat onto his face.

"What, what's going on?!" he questioned hurridly. "A panic attack?!"

He beheld Amanda who was sitting on the floor of the prison cell, curled up and shaking violently. She was breathing heavily too and she was whimpering incoherently to herself. Cynthia was sitting next to her sister to try to soothe her and calm her down.

"Please, she needs medical attention!" Darien said pleadingly. "She has a weak heart too and if she's under stress for too long, she can have a heart attack!"

"Kids, there's nothing I can do!" he stammered. "I'm not a doctor! I'm sure the doc we have here either got the Hell out while he still could or he's dead!"

Mandy whined loudly, pressuring him even further. Now he broke out into a cold sweat. He slapped a hand across his forehead and took a moment to make a judgement call without the influence of his boss.

"Hold on, let me see what I can do…" he said, nodding his head. "Just, cool it, okay?"

Because the power was out, the console located on the side of the cell was deactivated and rendered useless. But the door could be opened manually with a key. The guard grabbed the key from his belt and stuck it into the lock. With a loud but low-pitched click, the door slid open.

He walked into the cell and approached Amanda…

"Darien, now!" Cynthia ordered.

Before the guard could grasp that this was all a trap set up by the siblings, he felt a one hundred thirty pound body leap onto his back. A fraction of a second later, he could feel a pair of arms constrict around his neck. He placed his hands on Darien's arms and flailed about, trying to shake the boy off.

The two sisters retreated from their seemingly innocent and vulnerable positions. Amanda bounded over to the guard and briefly looked at him, feeling pity and regret with what she was about to do. She bit her lower lip and looked like she was really hesitant with the action.

"I am so sorry but we have to get out of here now!" she said.

Raising a foot, she kicked and landed a hit directly on his groin. He bellowed pain and immediately fell to his knees. His hands pulled back from trying to pry Darien off him and placed them over his privates.

Cynthia then stepped up to take her turn. Feeling as remorseful as Amanda, she wore a look of disgust and shame on her face. But all she knew was that she had to get out. Sooner rather than later or never was obviously preferred.

"Sorry!" the eldest said.

She kicked him in his face, breaking his nose. The lack of oxygen and the force from the kick had sent him spiraling into unconsciousness. Not wishing to kill him, Darien ceased the choking grip he administered and jumped off the guard's back as soon as he fell to the ground.

"Let's lock him in here and meet up with Blitzwing and Lugnut," Cynthia said sullenly, still trying to get over the fact she helped to overpower a fellow Human. "Let's hurry, guys."

The young Prestons cautiously stepped over their incapacitated captor's form and slipped through the opening in the bars. Exerting some effort, Darien pulled the door shut and removed the key from the lock. He threw it into the cell opposite of theirs.

"Alright, so how do we know where to exactly meet up with our robot friends?" Amanda asked. "We didn't even talk over how we were going to get around this place! There're guys running around everywhere!"

"Look, we're out of our cell, that was our first and foremost concern," said Cyndi. "How we can get there is what we'll focus on now…"

"Silas has the Allspark shard," Darien revealed. "I saw him put it in his pocket. We have to get it from him before we return to Megatron. He'll kill me and Starscream if we don't die already and we come back without it. That's why he sent us out on the mission."

"Where is he? Do we have any idea?"

"No… Cyndi, he put us in the cell and we haven't seen him since. He could be anywhere. I just hope we don't meet him again because he's got a gun."

"So do we," Amanda announced. She walked over to the table where the guard sat earlier. Leaning up against one of the table legs, there was a rifle. Clumsily, she picked up the heavy gun. "Nobody will give us problems now!"

"Let me hold the gun, dear," Cyndi said nervously. "You look scary with it and I don't trust you at all. Dad taught me how to use a pistol…"

"There's a difference between a pistol and a rifle," Darien corrected. "I actually know how to work with one because Dad took me pheasant hunting when I was fourteen."

Rolling her eyes, Amanda surrendered the gun to her brother. Darien didn't even use a rifle of this high of a caliber before but he hoped that the hunting rifle he did use when he went hunting with Robert would be enough experience. Muttering a small prayer, he held it to his chest and mindfully pointed the barrel of the gun towards the ceiling above him.

"So, what do we do?" Mandy pressed.

Feeling idiotic and indecisive, Cynthia shrugged. She really wished she had a better idea of what to do but she was at a loss.

"Follow the signs that say 'secret underground laboratory'," she concluded. "And in order to find our allies, just follow the screams of the guards."

"Are we going to live?" the blonde raised a brow.

"Oh, God, I hope so," Darien said and began to walk out of the detention block, still brandishing his weapon.

(…)

Dr. Conners was now feeling true, deep fear for the first time in her life. The last time she felt afraid of anything was the typical, infantile anxiety of the Boogeyman in her closet when she was five. She compared the fear from thirty decades earlier to the terror in the present day and saw that the latter was certainly the most prominent and powerful.

The scientist could tell the final defenses were crumbling when she could hear the seemingly indestructible steel doors were ripped to shreds by the two marauding, invading Decepticons. Mixed in with the explosions, she could hear the mortified death shrieks of the guards who had trapped themselves between the doors and the otherworldy robots. They were coming closer and there was only one last line of defense; one final steel door. Behind that door was her laboratory.

The assistants and engineers that were with her were arming themselves with whatever weapons they could find to try to defend themselves from their much larger enemies. Wrenches, emergency assault rifles (specifically held in the lab in the case of situations such as this), blow torches and many other odd objects were collected and scraped up, ready to be wielded by the last defenders.

Behind her, Samantha could hear a random gunshot. She turned around in shock to see what had happened and caught sight of a man who was falling to the floor with a gaping wound in the side of his head. He had shot himself before the Decepticons could get to him. Her eyes were wide as she stared frightfully at his corpse and she couldn't tear her gaze from the awful hole in his shattered cranium.

Starscream smirked when he saw all the cruel, arrogant confidence in her sprout wings and fly away. Now he was the one that had reabsorbed those feelings she had lost. He was still reclining on the operating table but now he was far more relaxed than earlier. The seeker was now fully reassured that his spark would be spared and that he would be escaping after all.

"What ails you, Doctor?" he sneered. "You don't look so well!"

Samantha ignored his dark taunts and curled her hands into fists. Her pulse rose and she could feel beads of sweat form on her palms. On her face, she wore a stern, defiant expression but on the inside, she was horrified.

She flinched when she heard one of the Decepticons rapping against the final barrier; which also happened to be the wall that stood between her and them. Dr. Conners took a step back, disbelieving how this could come about. She fumbled for a tiny microphone in her pocket and held it up to her mouth.

"Mr. Silas," she said with weak strength, "the enemy is at the doorstep to my laboratory!"

There was silence on the other end for a moment but he answered her very shortly afterwards.

"I'm aware of that, Samantha," he said in a very calm tone. She was practically astonished by how collected he sounded. "It seems I have misjudged the capability of my miniature private army and miscalculated just how powerful these 'Cons are. Now that I think about it, I should've listened to Anders and went after one of the pipsqueak Autobots instead."

"What should we do?" she rapidly questioned. "What can we do? The elevator's not working anymore because of the power outage and the stairwells are simply too dark to climb due to the same reason! And the two invaders are on the other side of the tunnel!"

"Samantha, I want you to be aware of the fact that three prisoners of mine escaped. I think it is very likely that they're enroute to your lab. They are Decepticon agents and I need you to kill them if I fail to by the time they cross paths with you. I'm trailing them as we speak… Good luck." Static started to interfere with their communications. "Die like a hero for your kind if it calls for it."

That was a sentence she dreaded hearing. The tiny device slipped through her fingers and fell to the floor when her grip had ceased to be. Dr. Conners stared at the final line of defense, her eyes huge and her jaw hanging like a noose. Her heart thumped hollowly in her chest when she made the realization that she most likely wasn't going to be alive within the next five minutes.

With forced grace, Samantha Conners turned around and faced her captive. His optics were solely focused on her and she could've sworn that she could see his dental plates shine menacingly in the dark room. The head scientist folded her hands together and stared straight back at him.

"The reason why we kidnapped you is simple," she said to him. "I'll make a long story short for you… We planned on cutting you open to see how you functioned so we could be rid of you and your kind. Mr. Silas sees your species as a threat to the perseverance and integrity of the Human race. He, rather, many of us here, see ourselves as heroes for taking on the task of eliminating non-biological extraterrestrial entites on this beautiful planet. Our first order of business was to select a specimen and then after we harvested what use from their body, we had plans of targeting your particular faction first, Starscream. Then we'd target the Autobots… We were always aware of the people who aided the Autobots and stuck close to them; Silas said they were just as bad as the machines. He deemed it necessary to take Human lives if it was required to guarantee the success of our goals." She sighed. "Now, it seems that our dreams have been shattered. All that we've worked on seems to be all for naught and futile. I personally hoped I'd live long enough to become the world's leading biologist on your kind. But now…"

She could hear Blitzwing pounding wildly on the door, giving a hint as to who was the main persona in control.

"_Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in!_" Random recited the old rhyme.

"Silence, Blitzwing!" Lugnut grumbled as he powered up yet another Punch.

Dr. Conners shut her eyes for a few moments but reopened them.

"Now, I've come to the realization I won't live too much longer," she resumed.

"You dare beg for your life, organic wench?" Starscream hissed. "You tortured me and came very close to offlining me! I will never grant you mercy! As soon as I am released from my bonds, I will peel the flesh from your frail bones!"

Even in the darkness, Starscream could see the fire in her eyes. She placed one hand on her hip and with her other hand, she pushed her glasses further up her nasal bridge.

"You can kill me after I put up a fight," she retorted. "I may not be some soldier but I'll do what I can. I'm not that helpless and you know it."

She walked down the stairwell and off her platform of power where she stood at Starscream's optic level. Samantha made a beeline to a chest that sat next to a table whose top was covered with random blueprints for experimental and theoretical weapons and other devices. Once she made it to the chest's side, she knelt down and opened it up.

With a mighty boom, the steel door was literally torn in half by Lugnut's power and sent a gust of wind rushing through the room. Humans yelped in shock at this occurrence and recoiled at this breach. Starscream shut his optics and turned his head to the side opposite where Lugnut and Blitzwing stood to avoid any possible damage to himself in his defenseless state.

Blitzwing immediately caught sight of Starscream as soon as the two rescuers swept into the room. When Starscream faced his saviors, he locked optics with the triple changer. The two stared at each other for a few moments, checking up on each other's condition.

"Are jou alright, Starscream?" Icy asked, kicking a Human away from him as he made his way over to the table the seeker was strapped to.

"Just shut up and release me from this thing!" Starscream snapped. "It took you long enough to find me! These Humans are absolutely insane!"

Blitzwing hustled over to Starscream's side, letting Lugnut take care of the organic defenders this time. He knelt down at his brother's side and began to look for a hinge of some sort that he could try to break and free him. While he did this, a few defiant Humans tried to attack him but all it took was a swat of his servo to send the unfortunate man flying away and crashing against the other side of the room.

"Can't you work any faster?!" Starscream scolded him.

"Shut up!" Hothead thundered. "I'll just take ze fragment and leave vithout jou if jou don't shut up!"

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Heh, jou'd be offline if I didn't find jou. Face it!"

"I'm not admitting anything, just free me!"

Before Blitzwing could work any further, he paused due to a sharp, slicing pain he felt dig into his lower back. He turned around, seeing Samantha Conners holding the exact weapon that had brought Starscream to his knees earlier. She had already shot the hook out at him, complete with the cable that ran between the hook and the end of the gun barrel.

"Hey, zat actually hurt!" Random complained. "Vhat kind of gun is zis?" He gazed down at the hook, seeing it embedded in his metal flesh. Stray trickles of energon flowed from his wound. "Jou naughty femme! Ze last femme who made me leak energon…"

"He's not going anywhere and neither are you!" she declared.

Samantha turned a knob on the grip of the weapon, setting the intensity of the electrical current to its highest level. Smirking wickedly, she placed a finger on the trigger.

As soon as she did this, Blitzwing screeched in agony, almost collapsing on top of her. He stretched his servo out to snatch up the woman and crush her in it but his servos were shaking so violently that he couldn't even do such an act. The way this persona sounded was almost disturbing, sounding like an odd mix between a crying baby and a whining dog.

For some reason, that noise made Starscream's faceplate soften. His lower lip trembled and he felt panic for as long as he heard Random scream. In this moment of terror, a flood of emotions rolled over him like a child being swept over by a rouge ocean wave. Suddenly, all the contempt he bore for him had ceased to be and he reminded himself that they were family even though they refused to acknowledge it anymore.

When they were both younglings, no one was allowed to touch Blitzwing with malice. They were brothers; in reality, half-brothers, but since Starscream was so young, he didn't discriminate against that. He had protected him fiercely and dutifully as much as his mother had done for them. Now this miserable Human was making him scream as if he was a sparkling.

That was simply unacceptable.

A ferocious, rageful look formed on his faceplate. Building up all his strength and yelling in determination, Starscream freed one of his servos from the bindings. He flexed his digits for a moment and then lashed his arm out to reach for Samantha.

When the electrical current suddenly stopped inflicting pain upon the triple changer, he wondered as to why that was the case. He found the hook was still stubbornly in place and the gun was hanging limply, no longer being in Samantha's hold. Then he looked off to the right, seeing the scientist in Starscream's servo.

The harrier jet's razor sharp digits had stabbed into her like giant scimitars. Seeping through his digits was her deep crimson blood. Her face appeared sickly and pale as her life had swiftly left her.

Huffing shortly, Starscream then tossed her aside hatefully. She smashed against the wall with the sound of her bones breaking. Then she fell to the floor, quite dead and no longer a threat.

"Let me rip that thing out of you," Starscream instructed. "It may hurt but suck it up."

"No, I got it," Hothead said defensively.

With a swift, powerful tug from his thumb and pointer digit which clamped around the grip, Blitzwing managed to remove it. He dropped it to the ground and stood still for a moment, trying to collect himself from the assault.

"Zhank jou, Starscream," Icy managed a small grin.

"You're worth more to me online than being offline," was Starscream's tender answer. "Now hurry up, you buffoon!"

He scowled at his insult. But then Random took command, looking to be happy and flattered.

"Jou really do care!" he said merrily. "Let's be best friends again, Starscream!"

"I'll do the same thing to you that I did to that witch if you don't release me now!" the seeker said venomously. He grabbed Blitzwing's face with his bloody servo and stared him in the optic. "GET A MOVE ON IT!"

(…)

The siblings believed they were wandering around the complex blindly. The last time they saw a sign that directed them to the 'testing level' was ten minutes ago. Now they were at the bottom of a dizzying stairwell that had led them deeper into the mountain. About a hundred feet ahead, there was one door and no other way to go other than back up the stairs.

"Do we go straight?" Amanda asked. "I hope this is the lab because I will not be climbing up those stairs! They were a mess going down them! Can you just imagine what it must be like climbing up them?!"

"On the bright side, you'll have thighs as toned as an Olympic athlete," said Cynthia. "We all could afford a little toning too."

They could then hear the sound of boots pounding off the concrete stairs above them. They were coming closer and if it were possible, they almost sounded angry and determined. As far as the three could tell, whoever it was was coming straight for them.

Darien readied the rifle he was still carrying, having a sneaking suspicion of who their pursuer was. Sweat beaded up on the back of his neck and he nervously clenched his teeth. His instincts told him to bolt like a jack rabbit but he had no desire to abandon his sisters.

At the far end of the hall where the door was, they could see a red light through the window situated in it. It was dark in there and the sinister glow was the only luminescence it offered.

"What do we do?" Amanda whispered, trying to keep the volume down as low as possible.

"The guy is like Slenderman," Darien said.

"Go for the red light at the end of the hall," Cynthia advised. "I know that light!"

"You 'know'?" Mandy raised a brow. "What if it's full of lazers and other scary things?"

The pursuer above them shot a round from his firearm with the intention to spook them and throw them into a state of panic and delirium. Luckily, it worked exactly as planned.

All three of them silently and unanimously agreed to take their chances at the end of the hall by running for their lives. As they ran, they could hear their assailant clamber down the stairs after them. They picked up the pace, desperately praying to not get shot in the back in the midst of fleeing.

"Any of you three feeling lucky tonight?" Silas called after them. "Here I come!"

Before he could try to root them out of the choking, oppressive darkness and shoot either of them, Cynthia, Darien and Amanda made it to the door in time. Simultaneously, all of them burst through the door, nearly ripping it off its hinges in their fervor. In silence, Silas watched as they vanished into the red glow that was in the laboratory. With gentlemanly calm and grace, he placed his magnum back into his halter and walked over to the door.

When the three Decepticon agents entered the room, just like the rest of the facility, it was dark to maneuver around in. Although their eyes had adjusted to the dim conditions, they had managed to reach the laboratory with luck and the sparse signs directing them to the area. Fortunately for them though, the red glow turned out to be the luminescence that was given off from the optics of the three Decepticons.

Upon hearing the door swing open violently, the trio of metal titans raised their defenses, ready to attack any stragglers that remained. Their weapons hummed as they charged up and their optics seemed to grow redder as a result of this hostility.

"Don't shoot us!" Mandy waved her arms and shouted. "We're friends! It's us!"

Upon hearing her shrill voice, the three 'Cons abandoned their awaiting attack. Lugnut groaned in annoyance, secretly wanting to "accidentally" kill her.

"I vas beginning to vonder vhat happened to jou zhree," said Blitzwing. "I vould've tried to communicate vith jou but zhey jammed jour celluar signals."

Random then abruptly pushed Icy aside. He eyed Cynthia, noticing that there seemed to be something a little different about her. Without any warning, he knelt down and picked her up by the back of her shirt, lifting her up off the ground. The black and red face examined her carefully.

Then he burst out laughing when he noticed the cause of this difference.

"What is so funny?!" she screamed at him impatiently.

"Vhat happened to jour nose?" he squawked. "Jou look like a clown, Cyndi!"

She felt her nose, not really noticing just how swollen it was due to Silas' punch she received earlier. Cynthia was so focused on escaping and reuniting with him and his bretheren that she barely noticed it. Her cheeks festered and she felt embarrassed. Naturally, that was one of the first things he pointed out.

"You dunce, I got punched in the face by some guy who's following us and wants to kill us!" the woman vented.

As soon as she told him this, Random was replaced by Hothead. His metal lips were curled back, exposing his dental plates, giving him the appearance of an angry snarl.

"He did vhat to jou?!" he raged. "No man or bot can lay a digit on jou! Only I can! Vhere is he?! I vill incinerate him and zhen trample his ashes!"

"He's right behind us and he has the Allspark fragment!" Darien revealed. "I think it's in his pocket, I saw him put it in there."

"Yes…" Lugnut said softly. His scanners picked up on the heat signature of an organic man who was only feet away from the door. True to Darien's words, he could pick up on the energy signature of the shard. "The Human child speaks the truth!"

The magenta and gray seeker stepped forward and flexed his scythe-like digits. He narrowed his optics at the figure pushing through the door.

"He's mine," Starscream announced. "He is the source of my misery and I want my revenge!"

"Jour revenge can vait, I call ze kill!" Hothead debated. "My femme's lovely face is tarnished now! Her nose looks like a tomato! I must avenge it!"

Before anything could escalate, Silas finally entered the room. His hands were folded behind his back and there was no trace of fear on his face. In fact, he seemed more amused and tickled than anything else. He eyed the extraterrestrials and their Human companions, all the while still smirking at them.

"Well, I never thought I'd ever see this," he said, shattering the uneasy quiet. "'Course I knew Autobots and people would get along… but Humans and Decepticons? This is odd." Silas turned his attention to Cynthia and Blitzwing. "How cute. Seems like the two of you have a little crush on each other."

Blitzwing growled gutturaly, not in the slightest bit pleased with the way Silas said that to him. Possessively yet protectively, he held Cyndi up to his chest and drapped a servo across her. His pointer digit massaged her back, quietly informing her that he wouldn't allow any harm to come to her as long as she was in his servo. Cynthia responded to his defensive actions by retreating deeper into his servo and placing her head up against his chest then closing her eyes.

"Silas," Darien warned, still brandishing the rifle, "just hand over the Allspark shard. Do it. You better give up or you're gonna die!"

"Not on your life, you spineless embryo!" MECH's leader growled. "I see that I am quite possibly the only living member of my organization now… But that's alright. It's an honor actually; humbling, really. I started out alone and at the end, I remained alone once more. The reason why I am standing before you is simple. Of course I realize that I am severely outgunned and at a steep disadvantage. I am more than aware that I will not survive this defeat I've been dealt…" He raised a finger and paused. "But my final earthly act will not be one of cowardice."

Before any of his six foes could react or forsee what he had planned, Silas quickly pulled out his magnum. He squinted his eyes, trying to find Cynthia in the dark. While the light from the Decepticons' optics aided their Human allies, it also inadvertently gave Silas an edge as well. It only took him about a second or two to root her out and point the barrel at her.

"If you try to shoot the Human, you shall be slain before you even put your digit on the trigger," Starscream warned. "She is our ally and if you kill her, we will abduct you and bring you back to our master. Trust me, that is a fate you do not wish to even dream of."

Blitzwing was far from pleased with what Silas was pulling. His optics blazed and he entrapped Cyndi within his servo to shield her from any bullets. She was a little startled to be suddenly wrapped up in this makeshift cocoon but she accepted his actions willingly. The triple changer's cannon barrels came down over his shoulders, aiming them directly at his beloved's potential attacker. His wing struts flared in anger, making him look a lot like an enraged bird.

"Jou're a razher dense Human," said Icy. "Jour pitiful munitions can't shoot zhrough my servo and harm her. I dare jou to shoot, germ. I vill freeze zat bullet and it vill fall to ze ground before jou know it."

Silas laughed haughtily at Blitzwing's words. He then ceased his laughter and gazed at his true target out of the corner of his eye.

"I'm not as dense as you assume me to be," he said. "I know to seize an opportunity when it presents itself! I may not be equipped to kill you giants but I'm more than capable of killing your little treasonous friends!"

Swiftly, he turned his torso to the direction where he had planned to shoot the entire time. When his torso turned, so did the gun barrel and it landed on its target. Grinning like a ghoul, Silas moved his finger to the trigger to apply pressure to it.

Amanda's eyes widened in terror when she saw Silas point the gun in her direction. Random flashbacks from her nineteen years of life played back in her mind's eye. She knew she was chosen to be killed by the wicked man but the horror had consumed her to a point where she was riddled with paralysis and all she could do was gawk back at him. The woman was convinced that no matter what she or anyone else did, it wouldn't beat Silas' quick movements.

Just as Silas was about to pull the trigger, a small spray of a loud, explosive volley came from her right. The sound of bullets tearing through flesh and shattering bone filled the air and a mist of blood gushed forth. A burst of light that was created from another gun was cast in the darkness, showing Silas being shot. The bullets penetrated his chest cavity, slicing up and destroying the lungs and heart within his body.

When the short volley of fire ceased after a few fleeting seconds, the room went dank again and the sound of Silas falling to the floor pounded off everyone's audio receptors and ear drums. They then heard the sound of an assault rifle crashing loudly to the ground as its wielder dropped it in shock. All eyes and optics turned to Darien who stood angry, overwhelmed and confused at once.

The seventeen year old looked at his hands all the while panting heavily. He simply couldn't believe he had taken the life of a person. Although Silas was evil and had subjected him and his sisters to some abuse, he still was flabbergasted that he had actually pulled the trigger. The only reason why he had even shot was because Silas had turned on his defenseless sister. Darien didn't even believe he had the guts to even pull the trigger. But there was a dead man lying on the ground before him, his corpse riddled with bullets he had shot out.

"D-did I just kill a person?!" Darien interrogated himself out loud.

With trembling fingers, he ran them through his hair. He felt as if he had been shot in the chest himself.

Upon seeing that the threat had vanished, Blitzwing opened up his servo, releasing Cynthia from her miniature prison. She could hear the gunfire through her cocoon although it was muffled. When he exposed her, she feverishly tried to look around to see what had happened.

"Who shot the gun?!" she demanded. "What's going on?!"

"Congratulations, my little friend," Starscream commented. "I never thought you would take an action as bold and drastic as that considering what kind of person you are."

Amanda could only stare at her brother. Then she got over her shock and disbelief and held him in a crushing embrace. She buried her face into his shoulder and wept on it. A moment later, she placed a kiss on his cheek and tried to calm herself down.

"Thank you, Darien, thank you so much!" she cried. "You are the best little brother a girl could have! You saved me! Oh, God, how can I ever repay you?! I'll let you go through my music collection whenever you want to! You don't even need my permission! You just go ahead and do whatever the Hell you want with it and I won't get mad at you!"

Darien was still held captive by his emotions and thoughts. Never in his right mind did he believe would he kill anyone. Now it was all done and over with a very dead and bullet-riddled Silas on the ground, bleeding out everywhere.

With his patience growing thin, Lugnut stepped over the two young Humans and made his way to Silas' corpse. He grabbed the body by its feet and hung it upside down and gently shook it (as best as a behemoth like he could do). When he did this for about a few seconds, a bluish-white, slightly glowing gem softly clanked onto the floor.

Curtly, Lugnut tossed the former MECH leader aside and eyed the shard. Just as Darien said, Silas did have the Allspark fragment hidden away in his pocket. Momentarily, Lugnut thought it odd that Silas would keep it in such an unprofessional and disorganized place as his pocket but he was just happy that he would return to his master and report that their mission was a success.

Blitzwing walked forward and knelt down while he still held Cynthia in one servo. He carefully pinched his thumb and pointer digit together, picking up the artifact.

"I vill hold ze shard," he said.

"Fine by me," Starscream agreed. "Let's blow this place up to the stars and get the frag out of here. I want to see this place burn and destroyed beyond recognition." Secretly, he wanted the place annihilated because he feared he'd carry the memories of what happened there until the day he offlined.

"Megatron will be pleased with our successful mission," Lugnut said in an optimistic tone. "It was without flaw just as it should be!"

Blitzwing silently studied Darien, seeing how shaken up the boy was by killing a man. Then he faced Cynthia.

"I had plans of transporting jou back home in me but I zhink jour brozher vould be more relaxed vith me zhan ze ozher two," he said quietly to her. "He killed Silas and he does seem traumatized zat he had taken a life even though he had saved Amanda."

She smiled at him, feeling a bit touched to see him not acting so possessive of her. Cyndi was happy to see that Blitzwing liked Darien enough to offer him a ride home. For awhile, she knew they were on friendly terms with one another but to see him soften himself for someone else other than her made her almost feel proud of him.

"That's very sweet of you," she said, patting his chin. "Thank you very much, Blitzwing. I'm sure Darien would really appreciate it."

He nodded at her and shot her a grin that silently told her "you're welcome". Blitzwing then turned his helm to Starscream.

"Are jou fit enough to have a passenger?" he asked him.

"I'm a little achey but I think I'll be well enough," Starscream replied.

"Do not lose my femme." Blitzwing deposited Cynthia into Starscream's servo.

"Oh, I won't." The seeker felt no malevolence or snippiness. All he wanted to do was just fly back to Detroit and take a nice long rest.

Lugnut saw what the transportation arrangements were going to be like and he had no qualms with it. Although he had a distaste for Mandy, he was simply too pleased that he would be informing Megatron that they had recovered their comrades and the Allspark shard. Carrying the blonde wasn't going to be a problem with him. Besides, judging by how startled she was that she almost died, he believed she wasn't going to be causing too much trouble considering she needed to deflate from the whole ordeal.

He snatched up Amanda who didn't seem to mind this little partnering up. She only wanted to go home as much as everyone else.

"I'm going to sleep inside you as soon as we fly off," she said to him.

"As long as you silence your speech synthesizer, I have no issue with it," was the cyclopean 'Con's retort.

(…)

With sleepy relief in their eyes, the three Humans watched as their Cybertronian partners destroyed what remained of the compound as they hovered in their vehicle modes. Barrages of missiles and blaster fire bombarded the ruined facility with the intention to erase its existence from the mountain side. It was almost exactly like a fireworks display except that the only colors consisted of black smoke and red, orange and yellow flames from the fire that began to engulf the mountain. Large concrete blocks that were a part of the facility broke off in huge chunks and began to slide down the mountain as if it was a rockslide. The pallid, soft moon and starlight contrasted drastically with the evil, grim light that had been radiated from the destruction rained upon the mountain hideout.

Due to all the racket and impact caused from the explosions, the snow that crowned the mountain summit loosened. Another series of shelling from the three Decepticons had a white blanket of snow racing down the slope. The metal giants halted their assault for a moment as they let the destructive forces of nature and physics do their part. They watched as the avalanche had covered a large part of the main complex and the other tiny structures that surrounded it. The avalanche wasn't enough to cover the occupied area but it served its purpose well enough as it buried what it could underneath a dozen feet of snow, sealing off most entrances to mountain's hollow innards.

"I think this is sufficient enough," Starscream voiced his opinion. "Now let's leave this place to rot for eternity on this wretched mountain."

"Perfect timing too," Lugnut grumbled. Almost in perfect synchronization with the avalanche settling, he detected several jets belonging to the Royal Canadian Airforce encroaching upon them from the southeast. He had no doubt that somehow they detected all the activity going on up in this isolated area due to the parks and tourist attractions a mere ten miles away. "Some Human airmen are approaching to check on the situation. I believe they found out about the destruction here."

"Then all the better to leave. We can't afford to engage in a fight with them right now and it's all in our best interest to return to Megatron as swiftly and stealthily as possible. So, let's move!"

The three fliers turned tail with the desire to retreat back to the familiarity of their subterranean home. They activated their boosters to ensure a quick and prompt escape from their organic enemies.

"Darien, how are jou feeling?" Blitzwing asked, striking up a conversation to take his passenger's mind off the impending threat.

The boy didn't say anything for a few seconds since he was hardly paying attention to everything around him. But when Blitzwing spoke, he was snapped from his meditations.

"I killed someone!" he blurted. "I'm not a killer!"

"Listen to me, jou had every right to kill him," the three-faced Cybertronian countered. Icy sounded a bit harsh and angry. "He kidnapped jou, zhreatened jour life and zhen had intentions to harm jour sisters. Jou had done ze right zhing in removing ze zhreat to jour livelihood and zat of jour family. If he had zhreatened my family, I vould have done far vorse to him in comparison to shooting him."

"Yeah, I know… I couldn't let him hurt Mandy. He was ready to shoot her and I wouldn't let it happen. It was like… it was like I became someone else. I didn't like it because it scared me but she'd be dead if I didn't do anything… And why did you let me sit in you?"

"Because jou are used to me."

"Not only zat," Random said suddenly through the radio, replacing Icy, "jou're my friend!"

Darien smiled for the first time all day. He leaned back into his seat and felt a little better.

"Thanks, Blitzwing," he said. "You're the coolest Decepticon ever. I said it once and I'll say it again: you can marry my sister."

"Jou mean Mandy?!" he sounded horrified.

"Dude, Cyndi!"

"Oh!" Blitzwing cackled at his own momentary stupidity. "Silly me!"

Before either of them could chat any further, Darien heard a crackling noise. Around him, he could feel Blitzwing shudder around him slightly as if he got a chill. Darien got a dreadful feeling in his bowels and raised an eyebrow in wary curiosity.

"Hey, what's going on?" he asked, swallowing hard. "Are you okay, Blitz-…"

Without warning, blue sparks of electricity manifested all around him, making Darien scream in fright. Amazingly, none of the sparks managed to touch him but still crackled loudly and brightly around him. He half expected Blitzwing's circuitry to start smoking and sizzling due to this mysterious phenomenon but that didn't occur. Neither could he feel any heat being radiated from the electricity. In fact, the robot didn't even quake or have his systems go offline and begin to plummet to the ground below.

As spontaneously as the occurrence happened, it ceased seconds later. Blitzwing kept flying along but Darien was still shaken and hungry for answers.

"What the Hell just happened?!" he screamed. "Are you trying to pull some kind of sick joke on me?! It's not funny!"

"Zat Allspark fragment I'm carrying unexpectedly released a pulse of energy," Icy explained. "It appears Lugnut and Starscream didn't detect it eizher vhich is quite curious… But I'm still flying and according to ze precautionary diagnositic scan I'm doing now, I haven't suffered any mishaps or damage. I assume I'll be alright…"

"But it sure tickled!" Random giggled.

Darien shrunk back into the pilot's seat and exhaled longly. He shut his eyes and almost wished he had a pair of ruby slippers so he'd magically wish himself back home. All he wanted to do was forget about the whole day and fall into a deep, restorative sleep.


	44. Strange Excavation

**Hello all! Thanks a million for the reviews/faves/alerts! Glad to see not everyone has forgotten about my story since I failed to update in so long! XD Anyway, this chapter was an odd one for me to write. It primarily focuses on the Autobots and I have to admit writing about them and characterizing them is not my forte. So if they seem to be acting OOC in some way or another, feel free to point it out so I can be better aware of it for future writing. There're also two characters I've introduced into this chapter (both Humans) that will appear in later chapters. One is an OC and the other is a character that appeared in the Bayverse movies. I don't think I did a well enough job of characterizing that particular canon character so if he seems shitty, sorry... I got lazy! As usual, please enjoy and review!**

**For **The Drone:** Yes... I'm sorry about that. I'm still working on that chapter too. I don't want to admit it but I fear I may have lost my muse for the Star Wars fandom for now. I WILL finish it sooner or later. I only have about two more pages to write, but I'm just having an extremely difficult time executing it. Again, I apologize and I will try to get it finished ASAP :)**

Chapter 44 Strange Excavation

(July 21st, Autobot base – 11:30am)

Captain Carmine Fanzone turned the ignition off and his car's engine died down. He got out of his yellow vehicle and began his walk over to the front door of the Autobot's headquarters. As he walked over, he made sure he straightened up to his full height and knew exactly how he was going to confront the five 'Bots. His reason for being there was a rare and odd one. It wasn't to ask of their assistance for catching a tricky villain like the Angry Archer. Rather, it was to request their audience on direct orders from the mayor of Detroit himself.

Optimus could see Fanzone approach his abode through a window and he walked out to meet the officer at a halfway point. He was used to having Fanzone stop by every once in awhile to give him an update about things going on in and around the city but judging from the way Fanzone carried himself, it wasn't going to be a normal newsflash. The Prime kept a straight face on and began to feel insatiably curious.

"Good morning, Captain Fanzone," he greeted, stopping in the middle of the courtyard.

"Morning, Prime," the Human regarded.

"So, what brings you here?"

"Trouble, as always. Listen, I have something new for you and your crew to do today. The President got a call from the Premier of the Northwestern Territories in Canada saying that three rogue aircraft attacked a facility in a remote mountain chain. Some rangers that patrol and maintain the parks a few miles away from this place saw and heard explosions taking place there. Some fighter jets were dispatched to investigate the incident and they attempted to give pursuit to the three unidentified craft that were attacking the facility. They outran them however and the pilots gave up chase."

"I think I know where this is going… But why would Decepticons be attacking some remote structure in northern Canada?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Look, the Premier asked the President if he could borrow you and have you assist him and his forces by investigating the site. Then the President directly contacted the Mayor and then the Mayor got a hold of me to come fetch you." Fanzone paused for a moment. "However, I think it might be in our safest and best interest if you and one of your friends came along while the other three stayed behind here to safeguard the city in case our airborne friends come out of hiding again."

Upon hearing this from Fanzone, Optimus began to wonder if this was an attempt to break up his team by attacking a location far from their base of operations. However, he had confidence that three of his bots could at least hold off any attacking Decepticons for a short while in case if they did decide to resurface. He just hoped that he wouldn't be kept too long from Detroit while investigating in the chilly north. As far as he could tell, this was a true Decepticon sighting and a very serious, catastrophic one too. Taking a gamble was more than necessary at this point.

The Decepticons had been keeping a low profile over the past few months and he found it a bit odd and troubling that they haven't made any moves. The last time they encountered them was in February when Starscream and Blitzwing raised Hell in the city on Megatron's orders. Besides that attack, there had been no sightings of them. But now since their supposed and suspected resurgence in a different country, Optimus found himself puzzled. What they were doing destroying a facility in the Northwest Territories was a guess he couldn't accurately make unless if he actually travelled up there and investigated the site himself.

After taking a few moments to mull over the situation in his helm, the Prime faced his Human associate.

"We will be more than willing to help them and find some answers," he said. "Just give us a moment to ready ourselves and we will be on our way."

Fanzone nodded his head in accord.

"Alright," the officer said. "There's a cargo plane waiting for you at the military base's airfield that will transport you to those Territories." He turned his back on Optimus. "Now my job is done and I'm off." He paused and glanced over his shoulder. "Who do you have in mind to accompany you on this little mission?"

Optimus pondered it over for a handful of seconds before reaching a verdict.

"Someone with a strong fuel tank," was his answer. Then he smirked. "And he has a particular soft spot for organics too."

(Northwest Territories – 3:00pm)

Still wearing the same sour look he had on his faceplate when he first found out he was selected to fly out to some remote region on the North American continent, Ratchet transformed into his robot mode. More than anything else, he wanted to enjoy a hot barrel of oil to warm his rusting joints. But before he knew it, Optimus was pushing him out the front door and informing him enroute to the airfield of what the dire situation was. Ratchet didn't mind going out to investigate Decepticon sightings but when he learned they were so far from their base of operations and that he was going to be surrounded by Humans, his day automatically became worse.

Bitterly, he surveyed the surrounding area, seeing spacious, verdant conifer forests, snow-capped mountains and cerulean colored lakes. Prowl should've came in his place considering how the ninja bot was an avid nature lover. If he was in a better mood, he would've acknowledged and maybe even admired the virgin landscape but his grumpy disposition reigned supreme.

Optimus rolled up beside him in his vehicle mode and then imitated Ratchet's actions a second later. Because there was no place to land the cargo plane that transported them that was close to the site of the attack, they had to drive twenty five miles out into the forest from a local bush pilot airfield where they alighted. Their route had consisted of dirt maintanence roads frequented by forest rangers and other conservationists. Their forms were caked with mud and Ratchet had some sturdy, stubborn pine cones caught in his wheels.

"Come on, Ratchet, lighten up," Optimus urged. "The organics need our help with this. We ought to be very respectful too because apparently many Humans died as a result of this attack."

"I'll try my best to put on a happy face," Ratchet grumbled. He studied the sight before him, seeing that the facility was still blanketed by a layer of snow from the avalanche. "It will be fun digging through this mess."

"That's why we're here; to help out."

The two Autobots looked up, seeing the remains of a gate that served as a barricade between the base of the mountain and the facility itself. It was destroyed, the barbwire running atop it being mangled and the fence being balled up and tossed aside as if it was candy wrapper. They spied upon a trio of forensic specialists who were collecting and cataloging some very charred Human skeletal remains near a hut.

"Looks like they had some fun terrorizing them," Ratchet grimly noted.

He transformed into his vehicle mode and drove up the road that spiraled up the ravaged mountain. The Prime followed him close behind also in his vehicle mode.

(…)

Upon shifting into their robot modes once more, Optimus and Ratchet found themselves standing upon snow and overlooking the sobering scene before them. Around them, crews of soliders and rescue personnel worked around them to try to remove as much snow as possible and try to root out any barely surviving souls buried beneath the frozen water crystals. Some snow was removed and beneath it, the two Autobots could see mangled, flattened, broken corpses that were being excavated. The remains were gently placed into body bags, regardless of how little of them was left or how gory their demise was.

All the carnage made Ratchet recall on what he had seen during the Great War so many stellar cycles ago. Just from the way these poor organics were killed reminded him much of the destroyed Autobot bodies he had walked amongst through the battlefield as he tried to aid the dying and wounded. No earthly force could crush the life out of the Humans the way those people were killed. Just by merely observing their bodies, he knew that Decepticons had killed them. In the days of yore, when the Great War was very much alive and rampant, the Decepticons had prided themselves on displaying gruesome brutality on the battlefield that would leave horrible, mental scars on their foes. The larger, bloodthirsty bots delighted in ripping apart their tinier, Autobot victims in their servos, biting their helms off and crushing the life out of their hapless prey.

Optimus was equally as speechless as his friend. Judging from the description of the three rogue aircraft he received while being transported to this natural paradise, he concluded that they were none other than Starscream, Lugnut and Blitzwing. He was fully aware of their destructive capabilities but he was astonished to see that they would kill the Humans in such savage ways. Then again, the more he thought about it, the less surprised he was. As his surprise slowly disappeared, it was replaced by anger.

"I…" Ratchet actually felt selfish for feeling so miserable earlier. "I don't know what to really say about this other than the fact that I'm sure our usual suspects did this."

"This is another crime that will be added to the long list of wrongs they've done," said Optimus. "But now we have to figure out why they've done this. I highly doubt that they flew up here and decided to kill Humans and destroy this place with no reason however monstrous they are."

The living Humans present were informed earlier that the Autobots were going to be showing up on the scene to investigate but some curious individuals couldn't help but to stare at them for a moment or two before returning to work. Some others weren't per say thrilled with their presence but tolerantly endured it considering members of their own species was responsible for the devastation.

"Look, I don't care, just keep the media away from this place until I give them clearance to flock here!" an irate man said into a cell phone. "I don't need brainless journalists tampering with possible evidence and making a mess of things! I have everything under control and I want it to remain this way."

Optimus and Ratchet traced the man's voice to the figure of a soldier walking over to them. The uniformed man shoved his phone into his pocket and turned his gaze up to the two alien robots.

"And who might you be?" Optimus started.

"Captain William Lennox," the man nodded at them. "I'm the one in charge of the military personnel occupying this site until we can get some more answers."

"Pleased to meet you, Captain Lennox."

"As it is to meet you, Optimus Prime." He turned to the Autobot medic. The soldier pointed a finger at him and said nothing for a moment as he tried to remember his name. "And you're Ratchet. It's a pleasure to meet you as well. Your presences are certainly welcome here since we could use some help from you."

"We have questions ourselves just as you do," the red and white mech said. "Firstly, do you know what this place is and why the Decepticons might've targeted it?"

"We managed to push some snow out of an entrance way into the structure and I sent a team of men in to investigate it. The inside of this place is completely dark since the power was knocked off when the Decepticons attacked. When this complex completed its construction a few years ago, it was listed as a mining or some sort of geological research facility. However, since we showed up here in the early morning hours, we're starting to become convinced that this isn't the case. It is a research facility but we don't think they've specialized in geology or anything along those lines. To be honest, this base reminds me of something out of James Bond movie."

"So you think there might've been some covert operations being conducted here?" Optimus wondered. "You think it's possible that the proprietor or owner of this facility lied about its true purpose to hide it?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was the case. But we're on our way with finding out about what's really going on…"

"Is there anything Ratchet and I could do to try to help out for the timebeing?"

Before Captain Lennox could say anymore, he could hear a voice from his walkie talkie. He removed it from the belt around his waist and spoke into it.

"What's the situation?" he asked.

"Captain Lennox, this is Sergeant Davies," the man on the other end said. "My unit and I just came across a survivor. He's in really bad condition and he needs medical attention immediately. His legs are shattered and his left arm is dislocated at his shoulder. He's also in an extremely disoriented and panicked state of mind." In the background, one could hear the delirious soul who was starting to shout incoherently.

"Okay, get him out of that place immediately and we'll take care of the man from here. After you bring him out, I want you to look for more survivors and anything else that could be of use to us in cracking this case." He placed his device back on his belt and eyed the Autobots. "Well, we have a witness to the attack."

"I see the other reason why I was brought here," Ratchet said. "I'll keep him out of this cold by sheltering him in my vehicle mode."

(Decepticon base – 3:30pm)

Isaac Sumdac always felt so intrigued and curious when it came down to the mysterious and divine powers of the Allspark. When the three Decepticons and their Human allies had returned from their excursion in the Northwestern Territories well into the evening, he was almost excited to see them holding the shard Darien and Starscream originally set out to retrieve. After Blitzwing handed the artifact over to Megatron, the Decepticon leader immediately entrusted it to Sumdac for safe keeping. Sumdac was grateful for this simply because it would give him something to study while he still remained incarcerated.

He sat at his table, gazing upon the tiny shard under a microscope. Its composition was unlike any other element found on Earth and its design was simply perplexing. The longer he kept studying it, the more he began to wonder if the Allspark itself was a god in a physical incarnation. If that was the case, he could only wonder what this deity was truly capable of doing.

After observing it beneath the microscope, he placed it in a scanning pad. The shard sat motionlessly on the surface as a light from beneath moved from left to right, operating much like a scanning feature on a printer. He closed his eyes so he could wait for the operation to complete and receive the results.

Then he reopened his eyes a few seconds later when he could hear footsteps approach him. He caught sight of Megatron making his way over to his holding cell. Sumdac sat up in order to properly present himself to the Decepticon lord.

"What are you doing?" Megatron pondered. He seemed bored and only decided to talk to his organic hostage because of that.

"I'm merely studying this Allspark shard you gave to me," the short man replied. "It'll give me something to do."

"The reason why I handed it over to you is because you won't be leaving anytime." The large, silver mech grinned. "So, why not hand it over to you? Besides, with your genius, I'm sure you can figure a way out to harness the power of that shard and put it to good use."

Sumdac sighed laboriously. He just wondered when he was going to be freed. He reminded himself that good things would come to those who waited. Those good things consisted of being freed eventually and being reunited with Sari.

"I might as well make use of my time here," Isaac admitted.

"I found yesterday's whole ordeal to be fascinating," said Megatron. "I didn't think that Starscream could fall before Humans. I understand it was a surprise assault." He held back a chuckle. "But that incompetent fool still amuses me with his bouts of weakness and foolishness."

"That was rather odd. It's a miracle how our newest friends managed to survive too. They are so young and completely inexperienced."

"I am pleased with how it all went. I got my two subordinates back and an Allspark fragment. It was a complete victory. And the organization that had kidnapped Starscream and plotted to eliminate our presence on this planet has been effectively crushed. Worrying about the Autobots and their allies is a processer-ache enough and I can't afford to have another faction standing up against me."

When the three Decepticons and their partners arrived from their mission, they had told Megatron all about what happened. Sumdac managed to listen in on everything. Secretly, he found himself rooting for Silas and his cause. He was more than willing to have one evil conquer another but he then hoped that the Autobots would take care of MECH before they themselves would be targeted.

Before either of them could resume their conversation, a loud "beep" sounded, signaling that the scan was complete. The two different pairs of eyes glanced up at the computer screen.

As they studied the data that was displayed on the screen, their eyes widened in unison. Megatron found himself becoming terribly perplexed by what he was reading. Sumdac was simply in awe of what the data showed. Both of them were completely silent, rereading the results to really see if their vision was betraying them. But as they reread it, their fascination had not diminished.

"This Allspark shard is corrupted," Sumdac gasped. "H-how…?"

"How can this be?!" Megatron exclaimed with rising ire. "How could such a holy relic be tainted by this organic matter?!"

"I-I-I don't know!"

"There didn't seem to be anything unusual with it when it was brought back here." He gave Sumdac a hellish, wrathful look. "Is this your machination?"

"No! All I did was observe it under my microscope and scan it!" Sumdac found himself cowering in his shoes. "I swear, it wasn't me! I did nothing to it!"

Growling within his throat, Megatron breezed over the results yet again. On the computer screen, there was a notice that read: "foreign biological contaminant detected". The scan had revealed that the Allspark shard had an organic compound in it that was composed of various amino acids and proteins, specifically, adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine. A picture of the contaminant was on the screen and it bore an uncanny resemblance to a double helix DNA strand.

The reality was obvious and a very startling one to swallow. Somehow, this fragment absorbed DNA and incorporated it into its very structure and being. The species that the DNA strand originated from was that of a primate, _Homo sapiens_. In other words, a Human.

Megatron slowly backed away. He collected himself and set aside his astonishment.

"Do not expose that Allspark shard to any Cybertronian in this cave," he instructed Sumdac. "Keep it in there with you, Professor. If it becomes exposed to any inorganic lifeform, it has the potential to have…horrid things befall us." Megatron stopped himself for a moment. "Blitzwing gave it to me and then I gave it to you. He carried that shard for the entire trip." His frown grew larger. "Then that means it's possible he could've been exposed to its radiation or even a tiny pulse of energy from it."

"Well what would happen if he was exposed to too much of the radiation?" the Human questioned.

"Isn't it obvious?" He glowered at Sumdac. "I know you are far smarter than that. A simple pulse of energy from an Allspark shard can have disastrous consequences if it is not handled properly. Now that it appears it has been corrupted by a Human genome, it can lead to something that I am not ready to accept and deal with. Do I make sense to you?"

Sumdac's jaw dropped slightly when he realized what Megatron just hinted to. He slowly shook his head back and forth, disbelieving what he had just revealed.

"It cannot affect you," Megatron further explained. "But to us, it is a most dire matter that must not be taken lightly. Professor, I want you to look after Blitzwing. I will watch after him myself but I will not tell him or the others about this crisis. I want you to keep your mouth shut too and not mention it to anyone unless if any…mutations occur."

"I'll do as you ask," Isaac nodded his head.

(Northwestern Territories)

Although the sole surviving member of MECH's slaughter had been given sedatives to calm down along with a hefty dosage of morphine to dull his pain, he still remained alarmed with the fact that he was now lying down on a gurney inside a living ambulance. He had been trained to take down such living machines and here he was recovering within one's vehicle mode. His eyes nervously flitted from corner to corner, just expecting to see a gun that shot scalpels or needles in order to snuff his life. The man didn't want to admit it but he saw he'd have to cooperate if he wanted his health to be restored. He thought death was going to claim him and he was starting to wish he died in the darkness but fate had other plans for him.

Even though the drugs and medications in his system had calmed him down to a certain extent and made him feel woozy, he knew he wasn't going to drift off anytime soon. Just by closing his eyes, he could see replays of the horrific attack that was launched upon the compound over half a day earlier. He had been warned by Captain Anders that it was possible Decepticons might be arriving to find their ally but he was confident that they could be taken care of. However, he had received the awakening of a lifetime as he saw his fellow Earthlings get squashed like ants beneath a careless boy's feet. He himself had almost been killed but luckily, one of the Decepticons lost interest in maiming him when a group of his comrades fired upon the metal titan, prompting it to focus on the men. The battered guard managed to crawl into a building and pushed himself to go further into it until he simply collapsed and fainted from shock and exhaustion.

Briefly, he pondered over his near future. Undoubtedly, he would be questioned by the Autobots and the military concerning what happened. But he didn't know whether it was best to fabricate a lie to mask his true identity as a common man working for a rather ambitious and headstrong fellow or to tell the truth in exchange for being left alone and being able to rebuild his life. He knew one thing for sure; he wasn't going to be joining any top secret, rogue agencies that hunted alien robots.

"It's good to see you've calmed down," Ratchet suddenly spoke. He still remained in his vehicle mode. "What's your name?"

The man jumped in his gurney, not expecting the Autobot to speak so suddenly. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and he forced himself to relax. Taking a hard swallow, he settled back down and his gaze flitted around the enclosed space, looking for a pair of inorganic eyes to make contact with.

"My name's Nathan," the man said.

"Do you want to talk about what happened, Nathan? Or do you want to wait until you get a little better?"

"I…I don't really want to talk about it now. Can you call the doctor to give me morphine? My legs still hurt. I just want to relax and fall asleep…."

"I understand. But can I ask you one question?"

Nathan wet his lips, feeling that he knew what Ratchet was going to ask him.

"Yes," he weakly nodded, "I can answer it."

"Why did they attack you?" Ratchet questioned. "Do you have any idea why they'd do this and kill everyone?"

"We… we had something that they were after. It was a small, tiny crystal that my boss found while he was in Detroit a few months ago. He said that it was of alien origin just like you and the others. He also said you were after these little shards… I don't understand why you want it so badly but I guess the flying robots got it after they killed everyone."

"You don't know if there're other survivors? And you mentioned something about your boss…"

"Mr. Silas. I worked for him. I bet any money he's dead. If he was alive, he'd be out and about." He omitted the fact Silas would be attempting to subdue Ratchet and Optimus. "He was the bravest one out of all of us."

"Okay, I won't pry anymore. Just take it easy for now and we'll question you more later. After Prime and I get finished with our business here, we'll be heading back to Detroit and we'll take you with us. We'll get you to a hospital for proper treatment."

Although Nathan had never personally had met an Autobot face to face, he found himself already liking this talking ambulance. He was somewhat touched and flattered that one of these extraterrestrial beings had stooped so low as to offer him warmth and security in their vehicle mode. In fact, the Autobot medic, in his eyes was starting to be likened to a kindly, hospitable Human. As the reality sunk in it made Nathan feel ashamed that he was told to view him as an enemy to Human prosperity and integrity. Without any hesitation, he far preferred Ratchet to any of the three bloodthirsty Decepticons who had nearly killed him.

He could still barely believe he was so lucky as to escape with his life and retreat into the facility before the avalanche covered the courtyard. Because of this turn of events, he could see the light of opportunity peeking through the clouds of despair and fear. Initially, he joined MECH for adventure and a tense adrenaline rush but the code of ethics the organization adopted were less than admirable in his eyes. As a result, he opted to be a simple reserve guard, a mere part-time worker. Now, he saw a chance to right his wrongs and restart his life with a clean slate.

"Well, thank you," he smiled weakly. "I do appreciate it. You're not so bad either."

As he attempted to try to relax himself and recuperate from his trauma and injuries, his eyes suddenly widened. Nathan had completely forgotten about something until that moment. That something was a bit of information that he deemed was certainly worthy enough to be listened to by the old bot.

"One more thing," Nathan sat up. Then he shook his head rapidly. As his mind and body relaxed, he had a greater recollection of the events that transpired before the attack. "My God!"

"Well, I'm all audio receptors," said Ratchet. "We might as well give each other company anyway since I've been tasked with keeping an optic on you."

"The Decepticons have three spies." Nathan wet his lips. He was still at a loss at understanding why exactly members of his own species would pledge their allegiance to such devils. "They're Humans. They were a boy and two girls. The boy was only a kid, probably seventeen or so. The girls were a little older than him."

Ratchet's spark was ready to cease pulsing within its chamber. If his optics were visible, they'd be widened to a ridiculously gargantuan proportion. For a moment, he thought his audio receptors were malfunctioning.

He sifted through his memory cores as he suddenly recalled an incident that happened with a Human woman and Blitzwing and Starscream. Even before that incident had occurred, she and her car had been abducted by the Decepticons and she allegedly reported waking up in the wooded lot behind her apartment a day later after her kidnapping. Blitzwing and Starscream had fought with each other over "killing rights" and then the triple changer had added insult to injury to the seeker by releasing the girl and allowing her to walk away. The woman seemed credible but he thought that the atmosphere around her was somewhat suspicious and perplexing spontaneously.

To hear that organics had loaned their aid to the Decepticons made his spark heavy with contempt and woe. Either way, if Megatron won, they would die regardless if they helped him or not.

"Have you seen what these spies look like?" Ratchet pressed.

"No," Nathan answered. "But we were warned about them…"

This was getting even more complex and strange than Ratchet initially judged.

"Wait, how did you even find out that the Decepticons had them? This is getting even more slag-deep in intrigue than ever now!"

"Since we have time, do I have a story to tell you," Nathan said. He had at last decided to tell the truth about everything. "You see, everything is not as it seems… Can you make a promise to me?"

Ratchet was desperate for answers and was held captive by confusion and suspense.

"Yes, yes!" he said impatiently. "What do you want me to do?"

"Can you keep me from going to prison?" the man asked. "In exchange for that, I will tell you everything I know and I will be more than ready to help you and your other Autobot friends eradicate the Decepticon presence on this planet."

"Spin me a yarn, little organic…"

And so Nathan told.


	45. U-Turn

**Thank you for the faves/reviews! :) So, comments about this chapter... Not much other than creepy chapter is creepy and yet another canon character from the Prime universe will be introduced at the end of the chapter! For those of you who may be crept out by xenophilic intimacy, then it is totally not for you even though you probably knew it was going to happen sooner or later XD The chapter is borderline rated M but I promise that whatever eyes I've burnt out and what mental images I've ingrained into your brain will be made up for the certain canon character's appearance. So please enjoy the update and feel free to send scalding flaming reviews to me :D just remember those angry comments will be used to warm my heart and soul! I'll need them because it is cold as Hell here!**

Chapter 45 U-Turn

(July 21st, apartment – 8:30pm)

Just to be merely back in her home country was almost like a godsent blessing in Cynthia's eyes. To lie down on her bed and lose herself in her sheets was sublime. To have her heart beat at a normal pace was invigoratingly refreshing. To not have her mind racing as she furiously attempted to concoct plots to save her life and her siblings' was a sweet release. After all the hectic carnage and harrowing close calls, all she wanted was to rest and be alone with no one else but her thoughts.

As Lugnut, Starscream and Blitzwing carried their respective Human charges out of the laboratory and through the death trap of a tunnel that so many guards had lost their lives in, she managed to catch glimpses of the horrors. Her nostrils were met with the offensive, repulsive stench of charred Human flesh and she could smell it clearly despite the fact her nose was swollen. The pungent, grisly aroma was so overpowering that she was on the verge of vomiting. The light cast from their ruby colored optics shed light on the corpses of the unfortunate organic men and Cynthia literally had to close her eyes because she couldn't bear to see the horrific scene.

When she returned to Megatron, she immediately made it known that more than anything else, she wished to return to her apartment with her brother and sister. Both Darien and Amanda were in accord with her desires and couldn't wait to take a breather from their first foray. Luckily, Megatron had granted her request and permitted his three organic servants to return to their home and recover. All three of them were shaken and some well deserved slumber and quiet would do wonderfully for them.

Upon their arrival back to the mine, Lugnut faithfully and truthfully regaled Megatron of the mission. Megatron was pleased with how his newest servants had acted during the whole ordeal and upon hearing from Starscream that Darien had killed MECH's leader, the Decepticon lord congratulated him for taking a life. The boy could care less about Megatron's praise and he was still rather shaken over the fact he had taken a life although it was in the act of saving a family member.

Before Lockdown could drive away and escort the siblings back home, Blitzwing intervened and wished to speak with Cyndi. She on the other hand, wasn't very keen on seeing him or even really interacting with him because of all the mangled bodies she had witnessed. There actually was sorrow in her heart over the whole incident and she felt pity that her enemies had to die in such cruel and inhumane ways. After all, they were of her own species. In reality, she found herself quiet angry at Blitzwing for killing them all.

She was more than aware of what he was; a Decepticon. Sometimes, she was blind to that disturbing knowledge and was duped into believing he was an affectionate, protective, considerate and dutiful lover. But when he went on a rampage, especially one that had resulted in the loss of many Human lives reminded her of what he really was. As sweet as he could be with her, ironically, he was also remorseless, condescending, sadistic, warped, wrathful and deadly, especially to his foes. On that mission, she got perhaps the rudest wake-up call regarding Blitzwing yet.

Since she had woken up earlier that day, he called her cell phone three times. He hadn't tried to contact her via the house phone yet most likely because he wanted to talk to her and only her and not want to even say anything to Amanda or Darien. Cyndi ignored his calls and didn't bother to check the voicemails he left for her.

Cyndi felt her nose, checking to see if the swelling recessed. Luckily for her, it had done just that but it was still a little enlarged and swollen from the punch. She hoped it would return to its normal size by the next morning.

Faintly, she could hear some music that had been wafting from Amanda's room ever since the blonde had woken up at noon. It wasn't uncommon for Mandy to play music on her boombox for her brother and sister to hear but there was a common theme that seemed to be evident in her song choices for the day. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to focus on the current song playing from her sister's room.

"_We are so young, our lives have just begun but so ready we are considering escape from this world. And we've waited for so long, for this moment to come, was so anxious to be together, together in death…_"

Cyndi sat up on her bed, interpreting the song she was hearing as a pro-suicide song. Her maternal instincts flared up and she was tempted to walk into Mandy's room and shatter the boombox so the song wouldn't instigate her young sister to commit suicide.

"_Won't you die tonight for love (baby, join me in death)? Won't you die..?_"

"Turn that off now and come into here!" Cynthia ordered. "I want to talk to you…"

A few seconds went by and then she heard the music suddenly stop playing. Then she could hear footsteps approaching her bedroom door. Another moment passed and Mandy pushed the door open, answering her sister's call.

"Yeah, Cyndi?" she asked.

"What the Hell are you listening too?" Cynthia interrogated. "Don't tell me you're going to kill yourself now!"

"Oh, of course not!" Amanda was smiling largely and she sat on Cynthia's bedside, joining her. "Okay, I have something to tell you. I wanted you to be the first person to tell you about something I've come to realize…" She wet her lips and folded her hands together. Cynthia could almost see the hearts in her eyes. "Cyndi, I'm in love!"

In truth, Cyndi wasn't really shocked or surprised considering how Mandy was always spending time with her guardian. She picked up on the little signs here and there that she gave off and knew it would only be a matter of time before Amanda would come clean with her feelings. Cyndi managed a tiny smile but her happiness for her lovestruck sister was eclipsed by her worry and troubles.

"With Lockdown, I know," she said.

"At first I thought he was so ugly and hideous but now I can't stop staring at his face," Mandy happily babbled. "I can't stop thinking about him and for the entire time we flew back home from that place on the mountain, all I wanted to do was run up to him and hug him!" Her spirits then fell. "But believe it or not, I'm afraid of saying anything to him… I don't think he feels the same way I do. But it's driving me crazy that I haven't told him how I feel! I have to tell him sooner or later before he actually does fall in love with someone else! I can't let that happen and I will rain Hell down if someone else steals him from me!"

If she didn't have such conflicted feelings regarding Blitzwing at the time, Cynthia would've been more than pleased to listen and coach her sister. She forced herself to remain interested and considerate but it was hard to do so.

However, because they were each other's lifelong best friends, Amanda could easily tell what her sister felt and detect when something was on her mind. Her lighthearted mood didn't make her feel angry that Cyndi really didn't want to comment on her revelation of love and instead she felt like the helpful one.

"You should feel so happy for me and normally I know you'd be," said Mandy. "Cyndi, what's going on?"

"I want to be the first to tell you what's on my mind because you're a fellow female," she started. "Look…" She exhaled and ran a hand through her hair. "After I saw all those bodies last night, I'm starting to have second thoughts. I-I don't think I can even kiss him anymore without thinking about all the death."

Mandy was already astonished by what Cyndi was saying. She fumbled for a reply of some sort but she sat dumbfounded on the bed for a few moments.

"Are you serious?" she questioned. "Cyndi, you can't be!"

"Don't you dare tell anyone about this but I'm going to start thinking of a way to try to escape. I cannot work for Megatron if I am required to take a Human life. Darien is still disturbed from his actions and if we hadn't been forced to work for Megatron, he wouldn't be a killer…"

"Cynthia, our brother saved me from being shot! It was do or die! That man was evil too and he was going to kill us! And Blitzwing protected you from him too!"

"I don't think you're getting the big picture, okay?" She restrained herself from lashing out at her in frustration. "Do you really, truly, honestly want to work for the Decepticons anymore?"

"I can't betray Lockdown just like you couldn't betray Blitzwing, Cyndi."

"So, you will not learn from my mistakes and allow people to die at our hands?"

"What are you talking about?! They came after us! They scooped up Darien and Starscream! We came after them to get them and the Allspark piece!" She gasped when she made an assumption. "Are you going to try to leave Blitzwing? And if you try to run away, Megatron will kill you. Cyndi, God gave you a brain for a reason so use it!"

"I'm in love with a monster, Amanda." Cynthia couldn't hold back some tears. She sniffled and rubbed her eyes. "I was so stupid for even thanking him for sparing me! I should've never seen him behind your back and fell for him. I ruined my life and the lives of my siblings by loving him and then having his boss find out! If I could go back in time and undo it all, I would!"

"Can't you try to talk to him about leaving Megatron and joining the Autobots?"

Cynthia scoffed loudly at the idea. She shook her head ponderously and pulled her legs to her body.

"He won't do that for me," she debated. "He kills people! He likes doing it! As far as I've seen so far too, he's Megatron's slave just like everyone else!"

"You can't say this to any of them," Amanda warned. "Cyndi, I can't even believe I'm doing this but I have to defend Blitzwing. I like him more than in the early days but he still kinda scares me… He treats you like a queen and you're saying all this stuff about him. Actually, he treats all three of us very well and to be honest, I've finally learned to be grateful to him."

"Doesn't it bother you that they killed all those men?"

Mandy paused for a moment to reflect.

"I do feel sad for them too," she admitted. "But they wanted to kill us and they were going to. They kidnapped our brother too. At least the Decepticons didn't kill us alongside them."

"But I'm afraid of what'll happen in the future," Cyndi asserted. "Next thing you know, I'm probably going to watch him kill little kids. And if it does come down to that, I will betray him. I will right my wrongs and make up for what I've done if I have to." She exhaled and lied down on her back. Her head rested on her pillow. "Maybe I just need to calm down and take what's coming to me and pay for my grievous mistakes…"

Her cell phone then rang for the umpteenth time. Mandy snatched it before Cynthia could make a grab for it. She looked at the caller ID and answered the call while her sister began to protest.

"Hello?" she said, smiling.

"Mandy!" Hothead thundered. "Vhy do jou have Cyndi's phone?!"

"I hate you," Cyndi cursed, digging her head into her pillow.

"Cyndi's taking a nap right now," she answered.

"Zhen she must've been recharging all day because I called her zhree times before!" he ranted. "I vant to see her so get her up and ready for my arrival!"

He disconnected his line. Amanda smiled mischievously at Cynthia.

"You've got a date soon," she said. "Someone wants to spend some time with you so get up."

"I will personally tell Lockdown that you love him and want to have half-Human half-Cybertronian babies with him," Cynthia smiled wickedly. "And there's not a thing you can do about it!"

To hide the massive blush that instantly forming on her face, Amanda rushed out. Sighing heavily, Cyndi sat up and reluctantly forced herself to get ready for the evening with him.

(Northwest Territories – 9:00pm)

Optimus took a moment to digest the shocking wealth of knowledge that Ratchet relayed to him. All that was told to him by his senior friend was startling and very much so alarming. For a moment, he thought that the tale Nathan told Ratchet which Ratchet himself then informed Optimus was a hoax of some sort. But the unwavering sterness in the old medic's words convinced Optimus that he had believed the organic man's tale and saw nothing but truth and credibility in it.

He knew that not all Humans were benignly receptive to him and his team's presence on Earth as evidenced by Porter C. Powell, Nanosec, The Angry Archer and other organic villains. The fact that a terrorist group had managed to capture Starscream in order to dissect him and then work towards the systematic, xenophobic, purging of the Cybertronian presence on Earth, had disturbed him. In a certain light, he now felt like he was slightly grateful to the Decepticons that they had eliminated a potentially deadly threat. The reality that many Human lives were lost had overshadowed that fleeting gratefulness though and after he had been revealed of what MECH was exactly, he still felt pity.

"So this Nathan was a part of that organization?" Optimus asked, making sure he got his facts straightened out. "The reasons why the Decepticons attacked him was because they an Allspark shard and Starscream was held captive?"

Ratchet nodded his helm. He glanced over his shoulder as he watched Nathan being brought aboard the cargo plane as a nurse pushed him along in a wheelchair. Then he turned his attention back to Optimus.

"Yes, everything what I told you is what he told me," he confirmed.

"So that means the Decepticons have an Allspark shard," the Prime sighed heavily. "That's something I'd prefer to not hear."

"What do you think about Nathan's news about the three organics who supposedly work for the Decepticons?"

"It's very unnerving. It seems that we have enemies everywhere. At times, I still find myself pondering over why they would devote themselves to Megatron when they should know that in the end, they will be as good as dead."

"He said that the culprits were two women and a boy. When he told me this, my processor drifted back to that incident which occurred a few Earth months ago. Do you remember the girl who had the close calls with the 'Cons?"

It had been some time since he had last seen her, but Optimus did remember her. Her name was escaping him but he remembered what she looked like.

"Yes, I remember her," Optimus confirmed. "Do you think she was here?"

"It's possible," the red and white bot said. "Her story regarding what happened with her kidnapping struck me as really odd. Things only seemed even more perplexing when she was fought over by Starscream and Blitzwing shortly after that. We haven't heard anything about the 'Cons since February and then this happened. Now, we have a man saying that three Humans are serving the Decepticons."

"There also was that one time when Bulkhead saved her from Blitzwing. But if she's one of these spies, who is the other girl and boy?"

"I don't know..."

"We'll definitely discuss this with everyone else whenever we get back to Detroit and try to figure out a game plan. We need to get that Allspark fragment into our servos. I would also like to question Nathan more whenever he gets a little better. I am happy to see he set aside his prejudices and is willing to work with us to defeat the Decepticons but I'm still a little wary of placing my complete trust in him."

"Which is perfectly understandable. I must say I don't mind the Human all that much but he is a stranger. He was a stranger that was going to target us further down the road."

The twin engines of the cargo plane behind them roared to life and the propellers slowly began to accelerate in their spinning, circular motion. The two Autobots then turned around and walked toward it, preparing to board and fly back to Detroit.

(the barn – 9:45pm)

Needless to say, Cyndi found herself mildly startled when she saw Blitzwing waiting for her in the wooded lot behind the apartment complex in his downsized state. She found herself gawking in confusion upon seeing him like this. When she asked him why he had done this to himself, he merely replied by saying nothing and scooping her up into his arms. After doing that, he activated his thrusters and flew up into the air.

During their flight, he hadn't said anything to her and Cyndi herself kept quiet considering she wasn't even keen on seeing him at the moment. Judging from the sights below them as he flew on, she could tell he was making his way to an isolated area, most likely to the peninsula in the north or the barn they claimed for themselves even further up north.

She was a little nervous because he kept silent and this was behavior she had never seen exhibited before in him. Cynthia had suspected anger was to blame for this but if that was the case, she expected Hothead to be yelling at her and making a ruckus. Icy, Hothead and even Random were tight-lipped and betrayed nothing to her. The blue face was dominant and his austere expression made interpreting his thoughts near impossible and frustrating.

After they had flown for about fifteen minutes, he slowed his pace down and alighted gently. Blitzwing landed on the dirt road that snaked through the woods which led to the barn. He set her down on her feet and then began to walk away from her.

"What is going on?" she said, raising a brow.

"Are jou following?" was his answer.

"Not until you tell me what's going on. You couldn't even be bothered to say anything until now."

"Same for jou. Come on, Cyndi. Ve're just going to ze barn."

"For what?"

"I'm valking avay now. Suit jourself if jou vant to stand zhere by jourself all night."

True to his words, Blitzwing continued to widen the distance between them. Cynthia hovered behind for a few moments, trying to figure out what he was exactly planning. She eyed him curiously but decided to follow at a distance away from him.

She followed him as he walked up the road. At the end of the road, in a little clearing in the woods around them, there was the barn. He pressed onwards, sliding the door and then disappearing into the dark structure.

Cynthia halted in her footsteps and tried to peer into the dim barn. She couldn't root him out from the darkness.

"Blitzwing!" she called. "What are you doing?! Would you answer me, please?!" He gave her no reply and all was quiet within. All she heard was the droning of crickets and an occasional cry from a screech owl. "ANSWER ME!"

Still, no answer.

Angrily, she stomped forward, pounding her feet off the ground.

"You better have a damn good reason to explain yourself, you idiot!" she threatened.

The anger she felt towards him earlier didn't soothe matters at all and his current difficulty was only exacerbating things. Cyndi was almost hoping he'd keep pushing things so she'd feel less guilty over batting him across his helm with a lantern. She grinned menacingly at the thought, praying he would do just that and she could release some pent up fury.

Squeezing through the entrance, she walked into the barn. Darkness had engulfed her and she could barely see anything. She kept alert for the telltale glow of his optics but she couldn't even see them.

"I will give you three seconds to come up to me or tell me what's going on!" she raised her voice. Stress and ire was evident in it.

Cyndi shuffled her feet across the ground, being hesitant to raise them and risk tripping over something sharp and rusty in the process. She cursed him beneath her breath, wishing he at least had the decency to turn on one of the lanterns that they made use of when they frequented the barn.

"ONE..!"

The dusty, wooden floor beneath her feet creaked loudly. Her gaze flitted from right to left, trying to detect him. The organic woman growled deeply.

"TWO..!"

Before she could even brace her tongue for the proper formation of the word 'three', she heard what sounded like rustling behind her. When she did that, she caught sight of Random's optics and mouth shining brightly in the darkness. He appeared to be standing a mere twenty feet from her.

"Zhink quick, Cyndi!" he said.

She could barely make out a square-shaped object he held above his head. Cyndi's jaw slightly dropped as she tried to figure out what it was. That tiny period of inactivity had cost her as he threw the object at her; a bundle of hay. It hit her square in her belly, making her stumble backwards and almost falling onto her rump.

"Oh, zat's not quick enough!" Blitzwing said.

"You asshole!" she screamed. "What in the Hell is wrong with you?!"

"Jou have to be lighter and quicker on jour feet! Zat's vhy jou ended up vith a clown nose!"

"By throwing hay at me?!"

"Yes!" Hothead said. "It's part of jour training regimen! Jou have no combat skills and jou are vulnerable vithout zem… So I vill teach jou to defend jourself!"

"Are you serious?! I don't want to learn to punch or kick! I don't even want to be in this barn right now! I want to be in my bed more than anything else!"

He approached her as his stabilizing servos grazed across the surface of the floor. As he advanced, she retreated.

"Cyndi, put 'em up!" Random giggled. "I vill try to punch jou and jou must dodge me!"

"Stay away from me, you bumbling retard!" she yelled. "You can easily give me irreparable brain damage if you manage to punch me in the head!"

"I promise I von't hurt my little love… But jou can't stand zhere and be so helpless!" He raised his balled up servos. "Pretend I'm someone jou hate! Come at me, Cyndi!"

She had no need to substitute him for anyone else because she already was angry at him. For an instant, she looked off to her right to see if there was a tool or some other object that she could utilize as a weapon. Luckily for her, she managed to find a pitchfork.

"This will make it fairer for me!" she said, dashing over to the pitchfork. Cyndi grabbed it and held it out in front of her to keep him at bay. "Now you think fast!"

"Jou took advantage of jour surroundings…" Random chuckled. "Jou clever femme!"

He came closer to her. When he did this, she warningly jabbed at the air. A loud, hearty laugh came from his speech synthesizer. To disarm her, he grabbed one of the prongs and tugged it out of her hold. Then he broke it in half and tossed it aside.

"That's not fair!" she pouted. "You're such a bully!"

"Life is not fair," said Icy.

"Here comes my fist!" Hothead announced.

She misjudged just how quickly he jabbed and his metal knuckles came in contact with the side of her head. Before she even knew it, she was knocked to the ground and the other side of her cranium smacked onto the floor. When this happened, she immediately lost consciousness and was lying crumpled up and inanimately.

The seconds that went by felt insufferably long and arduous to Blitzwing. He made sure he was restraining his true strength and he was confident she would at least dodge. He stared at her form, hoping that she was only playing a game with him or trying to deceive him into thinking she was down and out.

"Okay, zat's enough joking," Hothead said, tapping a stabilizing servo against the floor. "Get up, Cyndi. I didn't hit jou zat hard."

He got no reply from her. Not even a finger twitched in response to his voice. He did recall that the way her head hit the ground and they way she went limp after that happened. In a way, it was almost unnatural.

Blitzwing knelt down. He set a servo on her side and shook her.

"Cyndi, cut it out!" he commanded. "Get up!"

As he nudged her, her limp, unresponsive body fell over onto her stomach. Her eyes were shut and the longer he studied her, the more convinced he became that this wasn't a farce to get back at him.

"Oh, Primus!" Random came up front and began to blubber. "I killed Cyndi!"

"I vas opposed to zis training tomfoolery from ze start!" said Icy. "Zat's how zhings like zis happen!" He briefly reflected on how one bad training session had cost him his left optic.

"I vent easy on her!" Hothead debated. "I didn't hear anyzhing in her crack or squish! I zhink she could take a hit or two!"

"I couldn't have killed my organic love!" the black and red face bemoaned. Little pink tears of energon began to well up within his optics. "I vasn't ready for her to go!" He tilted her head up and gathered her into his arms. "Vake up, Cyndi! Jou can't die now! Ve never got to…"

"Silence, jou overgrown sparkling," Icy snapped. "She's not dead… I can see her chest moving. She's merely unconscious."

"Jou pervert…" Hothead added. "Stop staring at her breasts!"

Random giggled airily in glee and joy when he saw that Cynthia was indeed alive but only knocked out. He hugged her and began to kiss her all over her face, celebrating that he still got to be with her.

"I vill take good care of jou until jou vake back up!" he happily decreed. "I just hope jou remember who I am… I vill be very sad if jou get amnesia!" Then he smiled. "But zhen I vill make jou fall in love vith me all over again!"

(…)

When she saw the purple and white face-like seal looking back at her as her vision returned to her, she attempted to reel back in her shock. This effort hurt her back however when a pair of big metal hands rested on her, securing her against the Decepticon that was holding her. Cynthia grimaced at the pain and she titled her head up to face her captor.

"Oh, am I happy to see jou up!" Random greeted. "I zhought I killed jou for a moment, Cyndi!"

A throbbing pain that originated from both sides of her skull began to pester her and she rubbed her face with her palms. Cyndi fought her urge to pummel him and resume the doomed mock fight they engaged in ten minutes earlier.

"Let go of me!" she said.

"No," Hothead grinned, pulling her back to him. "I vant jou to stay here vith me like zis." Against her wishes, he placed a big kiss on her lips. "So, it looks like jou pulled zhrough zat punch after all!"

She didn't say anything back and only glowered at him. Cynthia almost wished that she was endowed with laser vision so she could melt a hole through his head. She was still irked with him over the gargantuan amount of Human life lost and the incident with her losing consciousness due to his games didn't give her any reason to treat him lovingly.

"Jou're not happy zat jou voke up to see me holding jou?" Random asked, detecting her hostility at long last. There was a hint of sorrow in his voice. "I didn't vant jou to lie on ze ground so I made a berth out of ze hay and lied down on it."

"Yes, I am pissed off at you!" she literally yelled into his face.

She managed to wrestle herself free from his grip since his hold had loosened since he was caught off guard by her malevolence. Cyndi placed distance between herself and him. Her heart raced nervously in her chest but she reminded herself to remain strong in order to address the issue she had with him. Her hands migrated to her hips and she took a deep breath, collecting herself.

Blitzwing sat up, not tearing his optics away from her. Icy replaced Random and he continued to study her.

"Vhat's going on now?" he sighed. It was clear that he wasn't in the mood to bicker and argue.

"Don't act like you don't know!" she countered.

"Cynzhia, honestly, I am in no mood to play a guessing game to figure out vhy jou are acting in such a disagreeable manner."

"Look, I'm sorry about punching jour lights out," Hothead grumbled. "I vas going easy on jou too. Lose ze attitude, it vas a tiny mistake I made!" Stubbornly, her arms folded across her chest and her stare hardened at him. "I'm serious, cut it out!"

"I'm mad at you," she snapped.

"No slag! How many times do jou vant me to say zat I'm sorry?!"

"Sorry's not going to be enough."

"Shall I retrieve a bouquet of yellow lilies for jou?" Random offered. "And to make it up to jou, I vill get a box of chocolates for jou zat vill all be filled vith caramel! Zhere von't be any mystery stuffings in ze chocolate too, I promise! Just please don't be mad at me!"

"I am appalled with you, Blitzwing. I am upset from what happened yesterday. Just how many people did you kill?"

"I don't know maybe two hundred," Hothead said nonchalantly. "I know Lugnut killed more zhan me because of zat Punch of his." He stood up on his stabilizing servos and walked away from the makeshift bed of hay he made. Cyndi held her ground as he approached her. "Don't tell me jou're mad over zis!"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am!"

"Perhaps jou have forgotten zhey have kidnapped jour brozher and Silas vas poised to kill jou, Amanda and Darien?" Icy said bitingly. "I shielded jou from him vhen he had his gun pointed at jou. Ve vere in a nest of foes, Cyndi. How did jou vant me to deal vith zheir zhreat?"

Consternation began to take over and she was becoming more livid with each second they were focused on the matter. She felt like screaming at him and rambling on and on like she did when she enlightened Amanda with her issues earlier. At the same time though, she was in no mood to have him mad at her or hurt his feelings. She still loved him despite it all.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I just find it…"

"I refuse to deal vith my enemies like ze vay ze Autobots on zis planet do," he resumed, interrupting her. "I have no problem killing my enemies. I especially have no issue vith killing enemies who zhreaten ze velbeing of zhose close to me. I kill zem so zhey cannot come back and pose problems in ze future. Besides, ve could not afford to leave behind any survivors who vould zhen tell anyone about our relationship…" He rested a hand on her forearm. "Megatron, Starscream and Lugnut already knows about us being togezher and I especially don't vant any enemies finding about it. Zhey vill target jou and possibly even kill jou. I hold no desire in my spark for such zhings to become a reality."

"Blitzwing, how do you see me? Tell me the truth."

He drew his servo back and stared back at her. True, he wasn't very fond of Humans but since he had fallen in love with her, he saw them in a more positive light. That light allowed him to befriend Darien and give Amanda a second chance. Blitzwing also had to admit that he saw them amusing and he was often surprised by the similarities his species shared with the tinier, organic natives. He even started to believe that possibly the whole of the Human race shouldn't be wiped out for when Megatron finally did conquer the Earth. The main reason why he would even want to preserve the planet was because he knew Cynthia would be heartbroken if her world was ruined and her species eradicated.

"How do I see jou?" Random repeated. He giggled. "Zat's a very silly question, Cyndi!"

"No, it's not," Cynthia said, shaking her head tiredly, "it's a serious question."

"And I vill give jou a serious answer!"

Before she could brace herself or react, he lifted her up off the ground and held her to his chassis. He cupped the back of her head and set his lips firmly onto hers. Cynthia's first reaction was to wrestle herself free and resume being angry with him but instead, she only smiled behind her lips and allowed him to slip his glossa into her mouth.

A minute later, he withdrew his metal tongue. Playfully, he licked her beneath her chin and placed a peck on her cheek.

"Does zat answer jour question?" Hothead said almost proudly.

"I don't know," she sighed.

"Jou know, zhere vas anozher reason vhy I shrunk down besides helping to teach jou some self defense techniques."

"Can you put me down on my feet so I can be ready to run when you tell me the second reason?"

When his faces swapped again, Icy was the persona that faced her. On his faceplate he wore a huge smile that seemed almost uncharacteristic of him and seemed more like an expression Random would wear.

"Must jou treat all new zhings as if zhey are frightening?" he asked, running a servo up and down her rump. "Ve vere so crudely interrupted last time but now ze chance of zat happening again is minimal and remote."

She slapped a hand on his chest, making her flinch, forgetting that he was made out of inorganic components after all.

"You brought me here to rape me?!" she roared.

"I vouldn't use zat connotation exactly," Icy corrected her. "If I remember correctly, jou vere receptive last time alzhough it did take some…coaxing." He grinned. "Admit it, jou liked it as much as I did."

Because their faces were so close to each other and there wasn't any way she was escaping currently, Cynthia unhappily felt her cheeks get hotter. She merely looked down, choosing to not look him in the optic to avoid any words exchanged.

"Oh, jou look like Hothead again, Cyndi!" Random chortled.

"Shut up, Blitzwing," she muttered. "Stop looking at my face."

"Zhere's no need to be so mean."

He slowly walked back over to the straw bed as he continued to hold her. The triple changer sat down onto his aft and still maintained his grip on his Human companion. With perverted and lusty intentions in mind, he seated her on his pelvis. He leaned back with one servo resting behind his helm.

"This isn't actually happening," she said out loud. She draped a hand across her scorching cheeks in a vain attempt to hide her shame from him.

"Let me make myself perfectly clear," Icy started, wetting his lips. "I believe zat ze month ve spent living togezher has made me fallen in love vith jou more zhan ever before. I admit I am not ze most fluffy bot but I found myself craving jour embraces and kisses. All zat closeness and varmth ve could now experience had fascinated me and left me addicted. I had alvays loved jou but I zhink our bond deepened during zat time."

"My berth is so cold and lonely and I hate recharging in it anymore!" Random complained. "I miss ze feeling of a soft, varm femme snuggled up against me right before I go into recharge…"

"I can't take it anymore!" Hothead burst. "I vant to show jou how much I love jou, Cyndi. Zhere vere femmes whom I didn't even care for and I relieved myself vith zhem and not jou! I plan on fixing zat right now regardless of our differences!"

"Wait-wait-wait-wait!" she rambled wildly. "Do you realize what you want to do?!"

"Yes, I am perfectly avare! I am sick of staring at jour body vhile jou don't even know it! I've been fantasizing about us for ze past month!" He grinned darkly and arrogantly. "And I vant to make it a reality! I love jou, Cyndi… Let me show jou just how much."

He pulled downwards on her shirt collar and the noise of tearing fabric filled the air. She yelled briefly as he ripped apart her shirt, exposing her torso. Gasping, Cynthia held her hands over her breasts even though she had a bra on. Hothead wasn't deterred by this and pulled the rest of the tattered shirt off her frame.

"You animal!" she cursed. "You should be ashamed of yourself! Now I have to go back home without a shirt on!"

"Keep it up and jou vill go home naked!" said Blitzwing.

Cyndi grimaced at the image in her head and growled within her throat. Her blush still remained and she continued to don a frown. Her hands remained firmly placed on her chest, concealing her rack from her lusting sweetheart.

"Do you realize what you want to do?" she said lowly. "I don't think you see what's going on here, Blitzwing…Once again, I cannot believe I have a horny Decepticon on my hands…"

"I'm not dumb!" said Hothead. "I know exactly vhat Humans do vhen zhey go into heat!"

"You idiot, Humans don't go into heat! We don't have a mating season because it lasts all year! You're describing us as if we're animals!" The hotness in her cheeks somehow became more powerful and made her feel dreadfully uncomfortable.

"I'm quite avare of zat," Random chuckled. "I just like to tease jou, Cyndi!"

She couldn't believe it was actually coming to this. There was no way he was going to let her go or let her off the hook otherwise. She could try to strike up a deal with him but Cynthia personally believed it wouldn't do her any good. The thing that startled her was that all three of his personas agreed and had their minds set on shaming and violating her.

When it came down to wanting to further fulfill the feelings they felt for each other, she wished to express it in that certain way too. What repelled her was the fact that they were of a different species. Cynthia had no idea what lovemaking consisted of in his species and she was reluctant to have it happen to her. A million and one ideas ran through her head, some brutal and some just plain macabre and odd. With the way things were going, she was half expecting to be courted like an unwilling female tortoise. She blankly and freezingly stared back at him, her mind focused on the impending act rather than his own face.

"Come here, jou scrumptious zhing…" Random smiled devilishly. "Jou belong to me right now. And forget about ze whole universe too… Because it's just jou and me and nobody else."

His optics peered right into her eyes as erotic flashes raced through his processor. Although Blitzwing was no virgin according to both Human and Cybertronian standards, his lovelife had consisted of overenergized one night stands, horrid and awkward first and only dates and the occasional (often pressured) trip to a bordello that consisted of captured Autobot femmes. However, that was before his reconstruction as a triple changer. When the glitched, erroneous modifications Blackarachnia had failed to contain and fix became manifest, Blitzwing found it very difficult to attract a femme. Many of the Decepticon femmes were repulsed by his glitch and some actually picked a fight with him because Hothead had said some unsavory things to them or Random had wolf-whistled at the wrong time. Even when he was a youngling, he wanted to have his own mate to love, serve, protect and cherish. Blitzwing eventually gave up on that hope after his reconstruction when he saw practically every Decepticon femme loathed him, feared him or just felt straight out annoyed by him.

But when he saw he fell for a Human and that this organic returned the love to him, he was surprised to say the least. As time dragged on, he nursed hopeful thoughts in his spark. Upon seeing that she loved him for who he was despite his flaws, he felt deeply touched and flattered. Because of that, he decided to keep her close and believed that she was worthy enough to keep. With the way things were going so far, he was optimistic that they would continue to remain together.

"Cynzhia," Hothead replaced Random, "jou're a fine femme. I have jou in my sights and I don't plan on letting jou go anytime soon."

It was hopeless. Try as she could, she couldn't stay mad at him for too long. It was a weakness of hers. Cynthia was just too in love with him to leave him. For now, she decided to give him another chance and let him slip.

Finally, she removed her hands from her chest. She set them on his shoulders and she lied down on top of him. Dreamily, she gazed into his visor, trying to find his optics hiding beneath the concealing accessory.

"I don't know if I ever told you this verbally but I'll say it," she said. "If my actions didn't say it already, I love you, Blitzwing. I love all of your sides. And…" She sighed deeply. "I know you accept me for who I am so I will accept you for who you are."

"I am very happy and pleased to hear it," Icy said with a gentle grin. "Zhank jou, Cyndi."

"Now let's get down to business!" Random would've vigorously waggled eyebrows if he had them. "I am excited but I vill do my best to not kill jou in my excitement!"

He hugged her tightly to his torso and kissed the side of her head. Cyndi groaned from the pressure and she coughed when her lungs were deprived of air.

"Just promise not to kill me and I'll do it," she said in a strained voice.

"Actually, zhere are two different kinds of courtship in my species," Icy explained. "One is ze spark bonding vhich is ze reproductive mezhod and ze deepest form of closeness zat is reserved only for a couple who is to be mated. But since jou are not Cybertronian, jou vill be excluded from zat ritual. Ze second part, is more of a casual, recreational form zat does not result in any procreation." He smirked playfully. "And actually, it is very similar to ze Human reproductive form."

Her jaw dropped, disbelieving what he was actually telling her. Based on his external anatomy, she had assumed that the males of his species had no use for such a thing and merely replicated themselves with the females through some other means she'd prefer to not be informed of. Upon seeing that her assumption was incorrect and that such an accessory was kept within the body, much like a reptile or bird, she was at a loss for words.

"Oh my God…" she said with her eyes huge and unblinking. "This is going to hurt a lot… I'm a…uh, well…"

"Ze pain vill be nozhing in comparison to ze satisfaction jou vill feel," Hothead said boastfully. "Now take off ze rest of zhose clozhes jourself or I vill rip zhem off of jou!"

So much for warning him of a break up…

(Decepticon base - 11:30pm)

Megatron felt unclean. Just being in the same room as that corrupted Allspark had him unsettled and slightly spooked. The reality that he too could have this theoretical affliction him made him uneasy. If it had managed to infect him, he'd be reduced to a severely weakened and deplorable state that he saw as far worse than death. His foes would undoubtedly descend upon him to finish him off and his followers wouldn't even acknowledge him as their feared, omnipotent leader anymore.

To temporarily escape any radiation or energy he suspected the tainted shard of leaking, he left the mine and decided to talk a stroll in the wilderness surrounding his base. He had left Starscream in command of the establishment until his return even though there was nothing to really run at this hour. Things were rather quiet and calm and he didn't mind allowing his conniving second-in-command in controlling things. His temporary reign over the mine would only last for about an hour or so anyway.

Even though Megatron wasn't fond of Earth or the native population, he had to admit he had a small appreciation for the Humans. He saw use and promise in employing Sumdac's skills for his schemes and opened his processor open about recruiting more organics into his service. After they had exhausted their helpfulness and purpose, then he'd simply relieve them of their servitude. Regarding Cynthia and her siblings, he predicted they would either be killed in action one day or eventually, they would die of old age or complications. So far, they had done well and he certainly had furture plans to use them again. He figured he could allow Blitzwing and his Human femme to spend the rest of her life being together. It didn't bother him so much because her lifespan was far inferior to a Cybertronian's; so he could endure her for a few decades.

The silver warlord pressed deeper into the dark woods, not crossing paths with any fauna. The owls ceased to hoot and the crickets stopped chirping almost as if they knew who he was. Not even the wind blew and the air was thick and humid. His optics scanned the area, being vigilant of his domain and ready to abruptly deal with any intruders.

Not too far into his trek, he got the feeling that someone was in his presence. He readied the cannon mounted on his arm, poised to use it at a moment's notice. Megatron turned his helm to the side, glancing over his shoulder. Seeing that there was no one behind him, he narrowed his optics and stopped in his tracks.

He stood amongst a cluster of spruce trees and retained his steely facade. Focusing his audio receptors as finely as possible, he listened in on his surroundings. When he did that, he heard the sound of stabilizing servos treading lightly across the pine needle-covered ground.

"Show yourself!" he imperiously commanded, swiveling his helm to the direction where the footsteps came from. He raised his weapon. "If you do not step out or answer me in five seconds, I shall terminate you."

He then could see a pair of piercing, cat-like ruby optics peering at him from the dense cover of the pines. Megatron's interest was piqued upon seeing that these optics heralded the presence of a servant of his. He slightly lowered his cannon but still kept his defenses up just in case if this mysterious Decepticon was a traitor.

"Easy, Lord Megatron, I mean you no harm," the 'Con's silky voice sounded out.

Megatron could scarcely believe what he was hearing. It had been a thousand of stellar cycles since he had last seen this bot. The last time he had seen this servant was shortly after Blitzwing's reconstruction as a triple changer. After Blackarachnia had declared the rebuliding process complete (but slightly faulty), Megatron called in a physician to handle the situation and possibly undo the personality quirks that had emerged from the reconstruction. This Decepticon medic had preferred to break and disassemble things rather than fix them but he attempted to right Blackarachnia's wrongs. Unfortunately, even he couldn't reverse the effects and had declared the multiple personalities to be irreparable. However, he emphasized on the bright side of things, saying how a bot could now have three modes of transformation was a good asset.

"Do my audio receptors betray me?" Megatron said, lowering his weapon. "Come out of the trees so I may see you with my own optics."

"Not a problem, Lord Megatron," the medic said.

The figure of a male Cybertronian stepped out from the trees. He was somewhat small in comparison to larger Decepticons like Blitzwing, Lugnut and Starscream, with him being around the same size as Lockdown. His paint was a deep, lustrous maroon with metallic sparkles and his color shined enviously in the moonlight. His alabaster, deathly colored face plate was sharp and void of any and all imperfections. On his head, he bore a regal crest that pointed upwards. His digits were claw-like, much like Starscream's. Judging from his very chassis, his vehicle mode was an automobile and not a flying contraption like most Decepticons opted for. Running along the length of his arms were tatoo-like designs that would be displayed on the front doors of his vehicle mode. His pointed stablizing servos were narrowed into a jagged edge.

"It has been awhile, Knock Out," Megatron acknowledged.

The red medic bowed before his master now that he was in sight. He tilted his helm upwards so that he could look Megatron in the optics after the curtsy was completed.

"This is most unexpected!" the Decepticon leader said. He was nearly exuberant that he finally had a medic to join his team on Earth.

"It is a long story regarding how I wound up here..." Knock Out began.

"Never mind that pointless narrative. I am just extrememly pleased with my luck right now."

"_Works for me_," Knock Out whispered to himself in his helm. "_I don't have to explain that I've been hiding out on this planet for the past few stellar cycles and pondering over whether to reunite with my friends or not._" He parted his lips and spoke. "Might I say, I am equally pleased with my own luck, sir."

"Well, you may follow me back to your new home. I have much to brief you on. You might as well silence your speech synthesizer and open up your audio receptors..."

Knock Out merely nodded. Behind Megatron's back, he'd be examining his digits in boredom.


	46. Dead Man's Revenge

**Thank you for the reviews/faves/alerts guys! :) Okay, so I pretty much expected to get the grossed out reviews but I promise you that it won't get that graphic anymore but there will be some references to it, especially in this chapter, so just hang in there and it will be done soon enough. LOL. So, this chapter ushers in an incident that will be the main focus for the next few chapters. It's icky but not in the same sense as the last chapter! You'll just have to see for yourself! So, please review and enjoy as always! **

Chapter 46 Dead Man's Revenge

(downtown Detroit, hospital: July 22nd – 8:30am)

Mr. Nathan Albright was given a summary of the wounds he had sustained from the massacre on the mountain. Both of his legs suffered fractures on his shin and on his thigh bones. Bruising had covered much of his body but he was lucky to have not suffered any internal bleeding. He didn't even notice it but there was a gash on the side of his head that needed some stitches. There were also some scrapes on his flesh but weren't serious enough to need grafts, stitchings or any other sort of repair or attention.

He counted his blessings and considered himself extremely lucky he had two broken legs as his most serious injuries. It would take some time to have them fully healed and the physical therapy he'd have to go through to make them strong would be pure Hell, but Nathan knew he'd get through it. Having a Decepticon break your legs to begin with was far worse than rehabilitating them in his opinion anyway. Being confided to a wheelchair for about two or three months would drive him insane but he'd force himself to suck it up and properly allow himself to recuperate.

Sleepily, he watched as a nurse walk into his room to pull the curtains away from the window. When she did this, a flood of warm, pure, soothing sunlight infiltrated the room, filling ever nook and cranny with light. Nathan squinted as the light struck him in his eyes, making his retinas burn a little. Grumbling in irritation, he buried his face into his pillow and tried to go back to sleep.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Albright," the nurse apologized, closing the curtains but not all the way. "Do you want me to open them up later?"

"No," he droned. Nathan looked up, seeing he wasn't going to be drifting back off to sleep. "I'm fine, no worries. I've been trying to go back to sleep for the past hour but I've failed miserably."

"Would you like me to bring you some breakfast then?"

"No, thank you. The thought of eating still doesn't appeal to me."

"You haven't eaten anything in…"

"Yeah, forty eight hours. The only thing that's been in my stomach since then is water." He fell silent for a few seconds. "May I ask you a question, ma'am?"

She wet her lower lip and walked over to his bedside. The nurse nodded her head and folded her arms across her chest.

"Yes, Mr. Albright?" she asked.

"Call me, Nathan," he corrected her. "Now, the question… What's it like living in this city with all these Autobots and Decepticons running around?"

"When people move out of the city in fear of being caught in the middle of their fights, other people move in to see it with their own eyes. Personally, I am planning on moving out of Detroit very shortly. A friend of mine, she was an anesthesiologist working here, was killed when a Decepticon trampled on top of her car with her in it."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Nathan felt it polite to say so. "A lot of my coworkers were killed by them too."

The nurse averted her gaze from him for a moment as she reflected on her departed friend.

"I am happy that the Autobots are here to protect us and I appreciate that," she continued. "But the reason why people are dying such horrible deaths and living premature lives is obviously because of the Decepticons. And the Decepticons are here because of the Autobots. I believe that they should leave our world and then the Decepticons will follow them. We can manage easily by ourselves."

Internally, Nathan laughed. She would've made a decent worker for Silas, maybe even his secretary (his former secretary had been shot when he had misplaced the Allspark fragment Silas found after scouting Detroit some months earlier).

"Thank you for your time," he said. "I just wanted to know what you thought about it, that's all."

"What about you?" she pressed. "I'm sure you have an opinion considering what happened to you."

Nathan smile rather casually.

"Death to all Decepticons near and far," he replied. "And death to anyone who helps them."

(Autobot headquarters – 9:10am)

Sari Sumdac could barely believe her ears when Bumblebee gave her the condensed version of what happened in the Northwest Territories. She was well aware of how mean and cruel the Decepticons could be in treating Humans but when she got this news from Bumblebee after he heard the full story from Ratchet and Optimus, the little girl was practically speechless. Bumblebee decided to omit certain details about everything, namely that MECH was planning to target the Autobots after the Decepticons had been taken of. He decided to do that to lessen the load on her mind and allow her to adapt to the shock of what happened. The little yellow mech already began to regret even telling her about this just because she was so young.

"Bumblebee, is this all true?"she asked with a heavy frown. "Did all those poor men die?"

"They kinda did, yeah…" he answered, rubbing the back of his helm. There was no way he was going to tell her what sort of condition the bodies were found in. "The Decepticons found out they were keeping an Allspark fragment and they went to go get it. These guys had also kidnapped Starscream and wanted to cut him open so they also showed up to save him."

Bumblebee was also hesitant to tell his young charge and friend about Nathan's claim of three young Humans working for the Decepticons. He didn't want to fill her thoughts with anymore troubling things. But he also wanted her to be aware of their existence if these agents were given an assignment to spy upon the Autobots under a seemingly innocent and helpless illusion. He also feared that they would target Sari herself and he wanted her to be aware of a possible threat to her wellbeing.

"That's so sad," she said, hanging her head low. "They're so evil and mean!"

The sorrowful face she wore tugged on her guardian's spark. The young Autobot sighed heavily.

"Come on, I'll take you for a ride," he said, lifting her up and holding her to his chest. "Do you want to go down to the park and you can get some ice cream?"

Sari nodded her head. She hugged him as best as she could and set the side of her head against his chest. The sound of his spark thrumming pounded against her eardrum.

"Thanks, Bumblebee," she said. "You're the greatest friend anyone could have."

"Let's just forget about how wicked those old, ugly, stupid 'Cons are and think about whether we're going to play kickball or dodgeball." He grinned optimistically.

While still holding her to him, Bumblebee transformed into his vehicle mode. He placed her within the driver's seat and securely fastened her up, wanting to keep her close and embrace her in this way. Then he sped out the front door of the Autobot base with intentions to take her mind off of things. Informing her about the Human traitors was going to have to wait until later.

Optimus watched as Bumblebee speed away with Sari. He didn't mind or really care that he decided to take her for a drive since he had faith in keeping her safe. When he saw them suddenly drive off, he assumed Bumblebee broke the news of why he and Ratchet had departed yesterday on such short notice.

The Prime shook his head heavily and walked into the "living room" area. In there, he saw Bulkhead at work at his easel, working on his latest project. Prowl wasn't to be seen; the ninja bot was most likely meditating in his quarters. Amazingly, Ratchet was sitting on the huge couch looking at the television even though it was turned off.

"Okay," Optimus broke the silence as he walked over to the couch to join Ratchet. He sat down next to him. "Let's talk a little bit more about what we're going to do with this issue on our hands…"

"Well, obviously, we have to get that Allspark shard back," Ratchet said bluntly. "That should be our first and foremost concern."

"What about the Humans that're supposed to be working for the 'Cons?" Bulkhead butted in, poking his helm around the left side of the easel. "They're probably running around the city as we speak!"

"Earlier this morning, I contacted Captain Fanzone," said Optimus. "I asked him to look up the report regarding the girl who went missing for a day and found herself in the woods behind her home. He did just that and came up with the young lady's name; Cynthia Preston."

"Yup, that does vaguely ring a bell," Ratchet admitted.

"Her brother and sister called the police in the early hours of the morning because she failed to return home from a drive she took out of the city. When the police searched around the area outside of the city limits, they found tire tracks that veered off the road and into a ditch. They said that a car used to be there because they found the license plate that belonged to Miss Preston's vehicle but it disappeared alongside her. There were footprints also found at the sight and they said they were much bigger than ours. Not only that, none of us were outside of the city on that evening. So, they concluded the prints belonged to a Decepticon."

"She's either got really bad luck or she's in with them," Bulkhead voiced.

"But we don't know that unless we have concrete proof. For now, she's innocent until proven guilty."

"I'll be more than happy to help prove her guilt," a new voice said.

The three Autobots followed the direction of the familiar voice, tilting their heads up to the ceiling. Up in the rafters, they could see Prowl peering down on them from above. He leapt down from his perch, landing professionally and almost soundlessly on his stabilizing servos. Straightening himself up to his full height, he faced his comrades.

"The vibes I got from that girl months earlier were not good ones," he said. "I most certainly believe she is hiding something. Optimus, will you please send me out to try to see what I can find? No one will know that I am even there."

"Judging from what Nathan told me, I agree with Prowl," said Ratchet. "He even gave us the names of the two agents his superiors informed him that might be invading that facility: Amanda and Cynthia. At this point in time, this seems to be more than a coincidence to me."

Optimus wasn't so much a bot to jump to conclusions too quickly, especially when it came down to organics. True, a lot of things regarding this young woman were piling up and with each incident of Decepticon activity happening, she always seemed to be at the scene or, in the case of MECH, in league with them. He wanted to wait for a little more light to be shed on her but he supposed that some surveillance carried out by his able ninjabot wouldn't hurt.

"After we get some more answers from that survivor, I'll allow you to follow and observe her," he decided.

"What more do we need?" Bulkhead said, setting aside his brush and walking over to join his bretheren. "Don't we have plenty of evidence already?"

"I just want to make sure we have our facts solidified first, that's all. We can't make any mistakes if we want to accuse a Human of aiding the Decepticons. It can be touchy…"

The four Autobots then heard the sound of rubber tires skidding to a halt in the courtyard outside. They looked at each and collectively nodded their helms. All four of them exited the living room and made their way to the outside.

When they made it to the entranceway, they saw a Detroit Police Department cruiser parked a few dozen yards away from their position. From the driver's side of the car, Captain Fanzone emerged and stood beside the car, waiting for his passenger to step out. The passenger opened up and a man dressed in military garb stepped out. Ratchet and Optimus immediately recognized him as Captain Will Lennox who was in charge of excavating and investigating MECH's facility.

"Gentlemen," Optimus addressed, "this is a bit unexpected…" He walked out to meet them but he held his ground when the two organic men made the first move.

The Autobot leader noticed a device that was cradled in Lennox's left hand. He tried to indentify what exactly the object was but he had difficulty in trying to determine its function.

"Sorry to show up unannounced, Prime," Lennox remarked. "You see, my men and I made a discovery when we managed to infiltrate the inner chambers of the structure."

"Captain Lennox didn't know how to directly contact you Autobots so he flew to Detroit, got a hold of the Mayor and then had me bring him here to you," Fanzone explained. "As it turns out, the good Captain found something very interesting and…disturbing."

"What more could you have found that was more disturbing than what we found at that horrible place?" Ratchet pondered out loud.

Captains Fanzone and Lennox stopped when they were both feet away from the Autobots. The soldier held up the device in his hands that had intrigued Optimus moments earlier.

"This was found in the office of the man who managed the compound," Lennox explained. "This is a voice recorder that was found sitting atop his desk. The rest of his office had been destroyed from the Decepticon's assault but this managed to survive the ordeal."

"Let me guess," Bulkhead said, "you've found something else out with whatever was on that recorder?"

"I also wanted to warn you Autobots personally about something. You know that Allspark fragment the Decepticons took?"

"Yes," Optimus nodded his helm.

"It's best that we let them keep it if you want to win your fight against them." He could see the surprise on their faceplates. "I don't need to explain anything. I'll let Silas do it for you from beyond the grave."

(the barn – 9:30am)

As if he was a lion that had engorged itself on wildebeest meat, Blitzwing slothfully lied down on his side. He slightly adjusted his wing struts so he could relax in this position and rested his chin in the palm of his servo. With a prideful, almost boastful grin on his face, he gazed upon the figure of a Human femme who was still sleeping on a bed of hay. He was half expecting her to be out and about before he did but he didn't mind that she continued to rest.

While he still stared at her, he recalled upon the event that happened the previous night. Blitzwing was pleased with how it went due to the fact he finally got to relieve some of his pent-up desire he had within himself. He had already known she was a virgin but when they made love, it was painfully evident that she was one. She was extremely nervous and tense to the point where he almost was about to give up to not pressure her anymore. Eventually, she did give in and let go of her fears fully. It then got to the point where she completely lost herself in euphoria and she eagerly accepted everything about the encounter.

Contrary to her beliefs and fears, he didn't kill her. She had complained of pain but then that quickly dulled away within a matter of moments. He reminded himself and his other personalities to be especially tender careful and gentle with Cynthia because she was organic and not a female of his own species. The experience was extremely identical to his trysts with his previous partners but the primary difference, again, lied in the reality she was Human. It wasn't as intense and rough as the older forays but he decided to make their later lovemaking experiences more powerful and deep as she got used to the whole act more. One thing was for certain; Blitzwing most definitely did want more.

His grin expanded when he saw her shift on the hay bed. Her jean shorts were unbuttoned and her bra was hanging loosely on her body. Her shirt that he had ripped was discarded and no longer had a purpose for being a textile.

He got up and walked over to her side. Then he lied next to her and set the side of his helm down. Their faces were only a few inches apart and he continued to stare at her.

Random then became the dominant face and he raised a digit. His mischievous optics then flitted to her breats, spying upon her cleavage. The digit then began to stealthily move the straps that settled on her shoulders.

Unfortunately for him, his digit was cold and that chilliness immediately snapped her from her slumber. Her eyes flashed open and she recoiled upon seeing his face so close to hers. She backed away from him but a quick action on his part drew her back to him.

"There's no need for that!" she scolded him. "You woke me up from a dead sleep!"

"Good morning, Cyndi!" he chirped happily. "Looks like jou slept vell… Vere jou tired by chance?"

When the flashbacks of last night's sin ran through her mind, she instinctually turned her gaze downwards to her thighs. Her shorts were on but they were unbuttoned and her underwear was on her hips at a low posture, indicating she sloppily dressed herself back up after the act. Her pelvis also felt a little sore but she shrugged it off, dismissing it.

"I got jou breakfast and I found a shirt for jou," he continued.

"Oh my God, I didn't go home last night!" she almost screamed. "I left Amanda and Darien alone without telling them..!"

"Amanda is nineteen and Darien is seventeen," Icy explained. "Zhey vill be fine. Zhey didn't even call jour cell phone so everyzhing must be under control…"

"Because Amanda probably went out boozing with her friends and Darien's probably starving! You seduced me and I didn't get home!"

"Lockdown is vatching zem too, don't forget about zat…" He ran a servo along the curve of her body. "Chill out, Cyndi."

"Don't tell me to 'chill out'! And where the Hell did you get breakfast and a shirt from?" Her eyebrow cocked.

"Come," Random said. He grasped her hand and stood up, bringing her up with him. "I vill show jou."

He led her over to a tiny wooden table that was situated about twenty feet away from the bed. As her vision became clearer as she woke up more, she could see that there indeed was a red plaid shirt and a loaf of baguette bread that was lying on the surface of the table. Cynthia felt flattered and touched upon seeing he got her a new shirt (despite it was quite oversized) and some breakfast. But her conscious nagged at her and made her wonder how he got such things.

"That's…that's very sweet of you, Blitzwing," she said. She stood by his side, not bothering to even pick up the items to examine them. "But where did you get them from?"

"I realized it vas only polite to find a new shirt for jou and to retrieve some breakfast for jou," said Icy. "Unfortunately, I had to leave jour side for some time so I could find such necessities for jou…"

"Tell me how you got this these things now, Blitzwing. Get to the point! I had no money on me when I went out with you and I know for a fact you don't use any currency on this planet…"

"Fine, I stole zem," said Hothead. "I snuck into a family's backyard and I yanked off a shirt I found hanging on a line. Zheir dog chased me into a cornfield vhen I began to leave zheir property too! I just escaped into ze field in time because ze farmer came out to see vhat ze problem vas!"

"And the bread?!"

"I couldn't sneak into a bakery in zis form so I used my holoform. I snatched ze loaf vhen no one vas looking, quit ze holoform and flew back here to vait for jou to vake up."

She wanted to slap him upside his helm. She made a mental note to herself to start carrying money in her pocket more often for him to use so he wouldn't have to steal. Cynthia cradled her head in her hands, hating herself for her idiocy.

"Blitzwing," she started, "you know how I feel about you doing stuff like this…"

"Yeah, jou're velcome," he hissed. "I got jou zhese zhings and jou can't even be bozhered to say 'zhanks'."

"Because you stole them! You didn't pay for the bread and you stole a farmer's drying shirt from his clothesline!"

"I vas zhinking about jou vhen I got zhese zhings, Cyndi! I vanted to provide and take care of jou by doing it! All jou do is nag! Nag, nag, nag! I'm not even bonded to jou and jou already feel like my mate!"

"I would really appreciate it if you tried to act more…" Cyndi sifted around mentally for the right word and not set his temper ablaze.

"I know exactly vhere zis is going," Icy bitterly remarked, folding his arms across his chest. "I have a feeling of vhat jou're hinting to. Jou zhink I should look up to ze Autobots…"

She placed a hand on his forearm and looked straight into his optics.

"Let's abandon Megatron," she said sternly, showing that she was being completely serious with her suggestion. "You don't have to tell him. Just don't go back to the mine."

"It's not as easy as jou zhink it is," he said, some of his anger waning and being replaced by concern. "Megatron does not take betrayals very kindly. He nearly beat me to ze point of being offlined vhen he found out about jou and I. If I actually forsook ze Decepticon cause, he vould hunt me down, rip my helm off vhile I vas still online and zhen mount it on ze front door of ze base, varning all possible traitors of vhat sort of fate vould befall zem should zhey try to betray him in anyvay. Believe it or not, I am afraid of him as jou are."

"But I'm sure the Autobots would be more than happy to have you on their team. Please, just listen to me…"

"Cynzhia… Jou know very vell zat ze Autobots and I are enemies. If I fly up to zem and tell zem I vant to defect to zheir cause, zhey vill believe it to be a trap and attack me."

"What about your fellow Decepticons?"

"Jou know Lugnut is obsessed and devoted to Megatron. Starscream hates Megatron and tries constantly to usurp him; jou know zat too. He vould be too selfish to even help me and he might even report ze plot to Megatron if he felt it vas in his best interest and vorked to his advantage. Even if I did vant to betray Megatron, no one vould join me in my quest."

"I want to. And so would Amanda and Darien."

He shook his helm heavily.

"I can't do it," he said. "And I vould appreciate it if jou didn't try to eliminate Megatron zhrough some plan of jour own."

"I am so concerned because I love you," she said, feeling as if she was ready to start crying. "I don't like what Megatron did to you, almost beating you to death. I don't like that he was ready to kill my brother and sister just because they knew about us."

Random replaced Icy. Upon seeing the melancholy air surrounding her, he immediately sought to dispel it and introduce sunshine.

"Zhere vill be no crying vhile jou are vith me," he said.

He abandoned the cold posture Icy placed himself in earlier. The warmer personality hugged her to his chassis and enveloped her with his arms. Blitzwing heard her sniffle against him. He kissed the top of her skull and rested the side of his helm on the spot where he kissed her.

The main reason why he was loyal to Megatron was because of fear. He knew without a doubt that more harm than good would come about if he had taken Cynthia's advice and become an Autobot. Without a doubt, Megatron would descend upon him and slaughter him brutally for such an offense against him. Blitzwing also didn't doubt that some zealous Decepticons would band together in order to hunt him down and avenge their lord and master. Throughout his career as a Decepticon, Blitzwing caught himself wondering a few times if the path he had chosen was right. After all, he had joined the Decepticons when he was young, naïve and hungry for adventure. Shortly after joining that cause, he then realized he bit off more than he could chew. As a result of that, he realized he was to be forever imprisoned by his own decision. So, he did what he had to do; adapt.

Currently, he was still young according to Cybertronian standards, about the equivalent of a twenty-eight year old in Human terms. Because he was still young, one would think he'd still have plenty of opportunities to right his wrongs and aim for a better path. Blitzwing thought it was the opposite. Very quickly, he had learned that when one had devoted themself to Megatron, Megatron expected them to be his servants til the gruesome end.

It pained him that he couldn't make Cynthia happy in that one area but to make her happy there would bring death, destruction and sorrow. He did love her. But he was powerless in that one matter. He could try to challenge Megatron but Blitzwing knew that his lord was his lord for a reason.

As he remained silent due to being lost in his thoughts, Cynthia still rested her head against his chest. While she was still pressed up against him, she heard another noise within him alongside the thrum of his spark. Her eyes widened when she heard what sounded like liquid churning within him. With her eyes widened in growing shock and curiosity, she moved her head away and stared at his abdomen.

"Is that your stomach?" she asked.

When she looked up to face him, she noticed Blitzwing seemed to be staring blankly at the wall ahead. The gurgling noise of the liquid grew louder and when that happened, his face soured. Upon seeing this, Cynthia realized he was going to be sick.

Before she could try to coach him on dealing with his sudden malady, his maw opened up widely and he vomited up a bright pink fluid. He held her to him tightly so he wouldn't end up barfing all over her. She could've sworn she felt stray trickles of the regurgitated enegron splash against her torso.

The confluence of the energon lasted for a total of a few seconds and then it ceased. Blitzwing still held Cynthia to his body as he recovered from the bout, disbelieving what had just happened.

"Oh, zat's not normal at all!" Random laughed, even remaining stupidly cheery in this situation. "Zhen again, I'm not quite normal to begin vith!"

"Oh my God, are you alright?!" Cyndi asked, placing her hands on his face. "Why are you throwing up?!"

"It appears zat I'm ill," Icy said. "I felt fine until a few moments ago… It suddenly hit me." His face then contorted to a look of agony. Cynthia could hear the gurgling she heard from earlier only it sounded much louder now. "I zhink I'm going to do it again!"

More energon gushed from his mouth before either of them could react. Cynthia moved out of the way in time before it would end up drenching her. Blitzwing was reduced to kneeling and his servos were digging into the floor. The tips of his digits dug into the floor, making wood splinter and chip from the floorboards.

Cyndi grabbed the plaid shirt he retrieved for her, completely ignoring the emphasis she placed on it earlier being stolen. She then knelt beside him and when the vomiting paused for a moment, she dabbed his mouth to wipe off the excess energon.

"I didn't think you could get sick!" she exclaimed, feeling as startled as him.

"It's true, I am immune to organic pathogens because of my nature," he said in a weak voice. "But naturally, zhere are some Cybertronian bugs and viruses zat ve can catch too vhile jou Humans are immune to zem."

"Heh," Hothead exhaled heavily. "I haven't zhrown up zat much since I got into zat energon chugging contest vith Cyclonus. Ve almost tied but I von in ze end!"

He then groaned in pain and his servos folded over his belly as if he had been struck hardly in the abdomen. Blitzwing buckled, almost resting the brim of his helmet on the ground. His dental plates clenched tightly and he muffled a yell. His body was shuddering and quaking. She'd be blind and daft if she couldn't notice that he was very ill.

"I don't know what to do!" she said, flabbergasted. "I don't know what kind of sicknesses you can catch! Blitzwing, what should I do?!"

He replied to her question by vomiting yet again. The energon was spreading across the floor like a monstrous, pink amoeba stretching its gelatinous body. She watched this transpire, feeling panic set in as long as he kept spitting up such a huge volume of energon. Cynthia gripped her hair in her hands and wracked her brain to find an answer in order to help her afflicted sweetheart.

"Call for help!" Icy ordered, grabbing her ankle. "If I keep expelling anymore energon out of me, I vill slip into a stasis lock and zhen go offline!"

"Please, Cyndi!" Random cried. "I don't vant to go offline yet! I'm too young!"

"I have never felt zis kind of pain before…" Hothead whispered. "I don't know how zis happened or vhat kind of sickness zis is..!"

He screamed out in excruciating pain as a sharp sensation travelled through his whole body, feeling as if he was stabbed by a sword. Blitzwing fell onto his side and curled up on the floor. Then he whimpered loudly, sounding a lot like a beaten dog.

She knelt beside him and slipped her hand into his servo. Cynthia kissed the side of his helm and then stroked his face in order to try to soothe him.

"Hold on, you're going to be okay," she said, trying to boost his spirits. "You're strong so I know you can take it." She felt her pockets for her cellphone. "Stay with me and don't die. I'm not ready for you to leave me."

The sound of her cell phone ringing then filled the air. Cynthia's fingers fumbled for the device that was in her right front pocket. Before it could ring a third time, she managed to grasp it and answer the call. She didn't even bother to check the ID since she hoped it was Lockdown, Amanda or Darien trying to contact her to inquire of her whereabouts.

"Hello?!" she said feverishly, yelling into the phone.

"Okay, before I go on, I need to make sure I have the right skin job… I mean, person," the caller said. "Is this…Bindy?"

"No, this is Cyndi!"

"Cyndi! Yes, Cyndi! I forgot your name for a second. Do you have a moment?"

"Uh…" She felt his servo tighten around her hand as he vomited yet again. "Not really, there's someone sick I'm dealing with now! I can't talk right now!"

"Cyndi, dear, I am a doctor. That's what you fail to realize. I can help you. As a matter of fact, that's why I contacted you. I wanted to ask you some questions about that certain someone because he might possibly go offline if the worst does occur."

"Wait, who the Hell is this?!"

"There's no time for that. Quickly, tell me what's going on."

"There's pink puke everywhere, that's what's going on! And I'm pretty sure that no one in any ambulance is capable of helping a person spewing literal gallons of pink vomit up everywhere!"

"Okay, I managed to pinpoint your location while you talked. Do not move from your spot and keep him still, understood? I will be at the scene as quickly as possible. I must see this with my own optics."

Her caller hung up. She was frazzled and quite overwhelmed; this led to her failing to realize that this caller was a Decepticon; a Decepticon that she had never met yet.

"Who vas zat?" Random said softly, his optics growing heavier.

"I don't know," she said. "But I think I just got some help."

Cyndi squeezed his servo and sat down next to him. With an available hand, she continued to wipe away the energon that coated his maw. A small stream of it trickled out of the corner of his mouth and he paid no mind to it. Blitzwing only continued to murmur and whimper as the agony still seized him.

"Am I ever going to see jou again if I close my optics?" he asked.

"I'm not going to leave your side," Cyndi replied. "Just help me help you by hanging on, okay? Stay strong. You survived Megatron and I know you can get through this…"

Blitzwing still held her hand in his servo. He was terrified of even loosening his grip on it for fear of passing away due to this macabre plight. As best as he could, he inched closer to her body and settled beside her. The triple changer set his helm on her thigh and waited.


	47. The Virus

**Thank you for the review and the faves and follows! I understand the last chapter wasn't too intriguing; either that or my story really has turned to shit XD If that be the case, guys, I encourage you to be blunt with me. I'm a big girl so I can take some criticism and I would prefer that if something was wrong somewhere that you'd point it out so I could make it a better story for everyone. OKAY, ANYWAY... So, this update... Had a lot of fun toying with Knock Out's character. I had a blast with it and I'm almost excited with writing future chapters because I decided to include him (Cons need a medic right? What better one that Knock Out?). Plus, more Autobot scenes...which shows just how much I suck at them unfortunately. Oh, and since a specific year/date in which TFA took place in despite the 22nd century was never clear so I just guessed. But if you guys know when it happened exactly let me know so I can go by that. So, without further ado, please read and enjoy the newest chapter!**

Chapter 47 The Virus

(Autobot base – 9:55am)

Captain Lennox rewound the audio file that had been stored on the recorder. He had already listened to it when he and Sergeant Davies stumbled across Silas' office when they did a run through the accessible sectors of the complex. Although he was a hardened army man, Lennox couldn't help but feel perturbed and unnerved when he heard the deceased man describe what he had witnessed and ordered to make a reality. Lennox himself planned on visiting the sole survivor, Nathan Albright, to ask him what exactly he was exposed to while he was employed under Silas' reign.

When the Autobots inquired him of what exactly the audio file contained, Lennox merely declined from explaining it to them. He just asserted to them once more that it was best that they listen to it themselves. They were perplexed by the Captain's reluctance to tell them of the contents of the recorded logs but they respected him at the same time and decided to not prode into the matter and just listen.

"Okay, I believe this is the beginning," he said. He glanced over at the four alien robots that sat on the stone couch. They were staring at the voice recorder, eager to hear Silas' voice and supposed dark tales. "I think you might be just as appalled by this as I am… There's nothing more I can say really."

"We'll be the judge of that," Ratchet retorted. "Play it!"

Lennox pressed the 'play' button on the side of it. He turned a wheel on the recorder, setting it to its highest volume setting so everyone could hear it. Then he backed away, waiting for the soothing drone of the white noise to stop.

"_March 11__th__…_" Silas' voiced sounded out. "_Anno Domini 2152…" _The voice of the dead man chuckled as he briefly spoke in the archaic tongue of the once mighty Roman Empire. "_A few hours earlier, I arrived from my little trip in the city of Detroit. Just as I planned to do upon reaching there, I scouted the city. As I expected, things were bustling and prosperous. However, there seems to be a fog of some sort that shrouds the place. People seemed tense and uneasy and they always kept an eye on the skies. It's obvious that they're scared to live in Detroit but I suppose I can understand them. I questioned random passerbys about the autonomous alien machines that ran rampant and explained I was a tourist. In short, some people were thrilled, others were neutral and then there were others that just hated their metal guts. Almost a month earlier, two Decepticons had attacked the city and there were some casualties caused by that assault. Apparently, that whole incident was still fresh in the citizens' minds…_"

There was a sound in the background that was recorded alongside his voice. Silas ceased speaking on the audio and there was some clanking noise. A flicking noise then occured that sounded like a lighter opening up and trying to be ignited. A few seconds later, there was the sound of him exhaling, indicating he breathed out his first puff of his cigar.

"_Even before I went to that Hell hole, I knew I was going to get what I needed there,_" he resumed. "_I just thought it was appropriate to feel things out and try to gain an idea of the routine patterns that both the Autobots and Decepticons adopted while on Earth. I remained in Detroit for about two days and about an hour before I was about to board the next flight to Yellowknife, I got the most peculiar souvenir. I found this bluish-white, luminescent, glowing jewel, geode, gem or what have you… It was in a garbage can of all places, sitting on the top of all that rubbish. Being the admirer of unique and odd things, I pocketed it and brought it back with me."_ There was a silence that lasted a few seconds. "_As I'm holding this in my hand now and studying it, I can say it doesn't look like anything I've seen before. It's definitely not sapphire, fluorite, quartz or some sort of freak formation of lapis lazuli. Samantha has a hobby for geology and maybe she can try to determine what exactly this little thing is… End recording._"

Lennox stopped the recording after the white noise sounded again. He then faced the Autobots to see what their reaction to the first audio file would be.

"We had an Allspark fragment here under our nasal plates and we failed to find it?" Bulkhead said, feeling stupid. "Now I'm feeling rather sheepish about that…"

"You don't want it, as I said," Lennox assured. "I guess I'll play the other clip. There're a few audio files recorded at different times on this recorder's memory card. You'll need to listen to them all to understand what went on."

"Please proceed," Prowl said calmly. "We'd certainly like some answers ourself, Captain."

Lennox nodded and pressed the 'play' button. A few seconds of silence went by and then Silas' voice spoke once more.

"_March 13__th__, 2152… Something disturbing and fascinating happened. I had Samantha examine that odd gem. She was really intrigued by it as she examined it, she explained that there was no element in the periodic table that even matched the compounds that consisted of this gem. She shared the suspicion that I did that it could be quartz but that was quickly discarded. Samantha pondered over removing a sliver from the body and then breaking it down to determine its exact elemental composition but then that's when the disturbing and fascinating thing happened. The gem glowed brighter than usual and then visible static electricity began to spark from it. It then suddenly subsided but the hairs on the back of our necks stood up, almost as if there was some sort of electromagnetic disturbance in the space that caused that sensation. Suddenly, a field of visible electricity that looked identical to the one that surrounded the gem moments earlier, manifested around one of our computers. _

_Then before our very eyes, it came to life. It sprouted limbs, grew a body, and a head emerged from the top of its trunk… The electrical field dissipated and then its eyes flashed to life, showing off their bright blue color. Somehow, that gem has the power to give off some sort of pulse of radiation or energy and give life to machines that were just simply machines. It can make these machines sentient like the aliens in Detroit. The thing that was once a simply computer stands about three feet tall and seems to have the cognition of an idiot. It has no clue what it is, what its name is nor does it comprehend its surroundings or what we are. _

_Samantha is currently watching the robot now and marveling over how it even came about. Thankfully, it didn't react with defensive hostility when it came to life and is rather meek and peaceful. Samantha has already given it a name too; Galileo."_ Silas scoffed harshly into the recorer. "_She seems attached to this naïve, primitive creature already. It can speak our language but it knows nothing. We will be monitoring its progress closely. It's obviously not of the same origin and may not have the identical internal physiology as the aliens but I may initiate the order to begin experiments on him and find out for ourselves what makes him live. I've taken the magical little gem for safe keeping and I now keep it inside my desk. I will not keep any machines in my office now for fear they will spring to life… End recording._"

None of the Autobots were really shocked or surprised to hear that the Allspark fragment Silas had gave life to a random computer. Soundwave had been given gradual upgrades via Sari's key that had been blessed with the Allspark's power. Such power had also given sentience to a common, dirty garbage truck who named himself Wreck Gar.

"As far as we know, there seemed to be no evidence that Galileo was even there," Lennox grimly remarked. "So far, we haven't even explored the whole complex and there are rooms that have been untouched since the attack. It's possible that this little robot could be there and hiding."

"I'm sure we would've picked up on his energy signature," Optimus debated. "I don't doubt you Captain but Ratchet and I didn't pick up on any other robotic lifeforms present."

"What about why it's best the 'Cons keep the shard?" Bulkhead asked. "That's not a very good thing at all that they have any pieces of the Allspark!"

"It's coming up, I'm sure," Fanzone spoke up. "According to what Captain Lennox told me as I drove him here, it is definitely a creepy and logical explanation…" He mumbled under his breath. "Another thing I hate about machines is how messy than can be, even when they get sick…"

(the barn)

Both Blitzwing and his Human companion were completely oblivious to the sound of tire tracks screeching a hundred feet away from their sanctuary. Cynthia was too worried and consumed by concern to pay attention to the outside world and Blitzwing's senses had dulled considerably since he had expelled a lot of energon from his body. They also failed to hear the sound of two pairs of metal feet approach the barn. But they finally took notice when they saw the barn door seemingly open on its own accord.

She stared at the huge silhouette of a Cybertronian that stood in the doorway. Behind him, she saw another shape that was larger than the one standing closest to her. Her eyes squinted as she tried to identify who they were. Instantly, she recognized the larger entity being Starscream who was peering in eagerly over the smaller mech's shoulder.

"Doctor's in the house," Knock Out announced.

Cyndi's jaw dropped.

"Starscream, who the heck..?" she started.

"Name's Knock Out," the red medic said briefly. "And you're the girl I managed to get a hold of on the phone."

"Yes, but I wasn't expecting a Decepticon doctor!"

"Luckily for you, I'm just the bot you need, Cyndi. No worries about this whole, uh…" He pointed a digit at her and Blitzwing. "…thing. I showed up at Megatron's humble abode last evening and I'm officialy your team's medic. I've been briefed with everything that occurred here recently and I'm fully aware of what's going on. Including the reason why Blitzwing is vomiting up great quantities of energon." He eyed all the energon that was on the floor. "You weren't exaggerating there too, femme…"

"So you can help him?"

"I will do what I can for my patient."

Knock Out entered the barn while Starscream hovered outside of the structure, continuing to look in. He studied Cyndi as he walked closer, observing the energon stained flannel shirt she finally put on.

"You don't have a very good sense of fashion, dear," he noted.

"Who are you, my fairy fashion consultant?!" the organic vented, fed up and stressed out over the possibility of Blitzwing dying.

Knock Out wasn't entirely amused by her outburst. For a second, his optics glazed over angrily but he let it go. Squabbling with her was something he wasn't interested in at the moment. What really had his attention was the medical horror unfolding before him.

"I am one, part time at least," he said with a sly smirk.

When he inched closer, a sign of life suddenly came from Blitzwing in the form of a loud hiss. Cyndi looked down, seeing Random was in control. His optics were wide opened and his mouth seemed to be pulled back into an angry snarl. His wing struts attempted to flare aggressively but his position on the ground and his sapped strength forbade that display.

"I don't like doctors!" Random said angrily. "Stay avay from me!"

"Blitzwing, you don't remember me?" Knock Out said. "I tried to make you feel better where Spider Queen failed."

"And jou failed miserably!" Hothead yelled. "Leave me be!"

"Blitzwing, shut up and let him fix you," Cynthia urged. "You kept saying how you thought you were dying and now we have help! Just shut up and let him do what he has to."

Reluctantly and hatefully, Blitzwing allowed Knock Out to approach and then kneel down next to the couple. Random replaced Hothead and he growled lowly at him, forcing himself to not lash out.

"Out of curiosity, why did you shrink yourself with that Human's invention?" Knock Out asked. A panel slid open on his left wrist and a scanner popped out.

"None of jour business," Icy said rudely.

"Well, a barn, a Human femme and a shrunken Cybertronian… That's a fairly easy equation to solve if you ask me."

"I hope zat my ailment is contagious… Come closer, Knock Out… I vant to zhrow up all over jou and pass on my plight."

"From what I can theorize, it's contagious under one condition, my three faced friend. And without your knowledge, Megatron has made the necessary precautions to make sure no one else is infected."

"Vhat do jou mean by zat exactly?"

"You caught this virus from that Allspark fragment you, Starscream, Lugnut and the Humans retrieved from up in the Northwest Territories. It was corrupted. You see, it must've unleashed a pulse of energy and you were in close proximity to it. The radiation from that energy incubated in you for about a solar cycle and then it went into effect."

"Wait, that little Allspark fragment is making him be sick like this?" Cyndi asked with rising worry.

"Indeed it is. The fragment has been placed into quarantine and under careful observation."

"Is there a cure?"

A beep sounded from his scanner and Knock Out read the results to himself silently. He eyed Blitzwing and then looked over his shoulder.

"Starscream, I'm glad you tagged along after all," he said. "Can I have you carry him back to the mine? He needs to be monitored very closely. Just as Megatron had suspected, this virus truly is an unfortunate, malicious one to have."

"Wait, tell me what's going on!" Cynthia asserted. "I want to know and I'm sure he does too!"

"No time to talk, we have to roll." Without warning, he grasped her and tightened his digits around her. "I'll be your driver and Starscream will take care of Blitzwing."

"Don't take her from me!" Random pouted. "I don't vant her to leave me, please!"

"We're all heading in the same direction, Blitzy. Can you act like an adult and fess up, please?"

Blitzwing wasn't very happy to see that Knock Out denied his request. If he was at his full size and strength, he would've torn the medic in half at his words. For the moment, all he could do was lie on his side and glare daggers at him.

"Don't jou dare hurt her," Hothead warned. "Just because zis virus made me veak and vulnerable doesn't mean I can't make jour life unbearable if jou do harm her…"

"Please," Knock Out rolled his optics. "I don't think I want to get her guts all over my paintjob anyway. I don't like killing Humans because they're far too messy."

Starscream maneuvered his way into the barn, needing to fold his wingstruts inward to not scrape them against the sliding wooden doors. He joined up with everyone else and knelt down upon reaching Blitzwing's side.

His thoughts were still centralized around his rescue that happened only a few days earlier and how he had reacted upon seeing Blitzwing being attacked by MECH's head scientist. Upon seeing him in agony, he broke through his bonds at last and slain the woman. But after that ordeal ended, his stony defenses rebuilt themselves and he treated him as gruffly once more. Now that he was seeing Blitzwing again in a dire time and in a situation far more potentially grave than Samantha's weapon, concern silently chipped away at his spark once more.

The seeker tenderly lifted Blitzwing up from the energon-sodden wooden floor and cradled him in his servo. Wordlessly, he then stood back up and turned around to begin walking out of the barn. Without a moment to waste, as soon as Starscream stepped outside, he activated the thrusters in his stabilizing servos and took to the sky.

"That was rather painless," Knock Out noted. He followed Starscream's example and turned around to exit the barn. "Now, dear, I can assure you that what he has is not contagious. Just as you cannot give him organic based diseases, he cannot give you ones of Cybertronian origin."

Cyndi said nothing in reply to his comments. Even as he transformed into his vehicle mode, a red, stylish, European sports car, she remained quiet and contemplative.

(Autobot base)

"_April 4__th__, 2152. Over the past two weeks since Galileo's birth, we've kept him under close surveillance. Samantha continues to teach him about the world and now the little pest wants to explore the wilderness outside the facility. Galileo clings to her as if she is his mother and now I wonder if she begins to return the affection. I'm not too thrilled with that knowledge in the slightest bit. For now, I've decided to merely observe him rather than cut him open. I figure that we'd have more results if we actually abducted one of the actual aliens and did dissection and deconstruction procedures anyway._

_Besides that business with the young robot, something else happened about two days earlier. Frankly, I forgot to even record it earlier but, oh well. I lost my temper and shot and killed my secretary. The idiot had dropped that enchanted shard when I had specifically told him to handle it with care and send it down to Samantha so she could run some tests on it. Some blood was oozing out from the hole I placed in his skull and the shard was lying close to his body. Then something happened as I saw his blood spread out across the floor and inched towards the gem. The shard, I reckon I still don't know how it happened exactly, absorbed that idiot's blood. It glowed crimson for a few seconds and then it returned to its usual color as if nothing ever happened. I was perplexed by this but I shrugged it off and proceeded to personally deliver it to Samantha as I should've done. I told her about what happened and she said she would look into it and see if it was possible it integrated Human DNA into its molecular structure and composition. But it also doesn't make sense because when she examined it earlier, she said there was no permeable or even semi-permeable surface… She said that if that was the case, the gem could end up becoming extremely unstable and dangerous…_"

There was a pause on the recorder and then there was a muffled voice in the background. After the silence lasted for about a minute, Silas continued.

"_I just got news that Galileo was playing with the shard behind Samantha's back and was somehow electrocuted by it. He wasn't harmed by it at all and according to what she said, he's still as playful and peppy as he usually is. Samantha's running tests on him now to make sure he's alright. I will keep a close eye on this development. Ever since I saw it absorb Human blood, I find myself becoming somewhat fearful of what kind of power it holds exactly. End recording._"

As they listened to the events that had unfolded over three months earlier in the Canadian north, Ratchet, Prowl, Bulkhead and Optimus were becoming more enlightened about the matter and understood why Lennox's assertion to let the Decepticons keep the shard became clearer. They were especially surprised when Silas revealed that it had absorbed some Human blood and didn't seem to react violently to this and only glowed when it intook the organic substance.

"So, the 'Cons have an Allspark fragment that is infected with Human blood?" Bulkhead realized, putting two and two together. "Wouldn't that mean it's useless now? I guess it is a good thing after all!"

"If that's the case, that sliver of the Allspark should never be united with the main body," Prowl said darkly. "If that tiny, corrupted piece would conjoin with all the others to make it whole once more, it could spell disaster for our entire race. Lennox is right."

"You haven't even heard as to why it is such a bad thing," Lennox added.

"Ugh, will this ever end?" Ratchet grumbled. "That organic talks and talks and talks! I think we get the point here!"

Unlike Ratchet, Optimus was extremely interested with Silas' reports. Even though he had never crossed paths with MECH's leader and he hadn't personally talked to Nathan as of yet, the young Prime deduced that this was a devious, crafty and hostile organic. Again, he was somewhat relieved the Decepticons had taken care of him and his organization so that they would not pose a problem in the future. Optimus preferred to remain silent and diligently listened to the recordings so far.

"The next one's starting," said Captain Lennox.

The white noise subsided when Silas' voice came on yet again. His breathing sounded heavy and a bit stressed.

"_April 6__th__ 2152,_" he said with a dark tone. "_Galileo's sick. It started all of a sudden about a few hours earlier. He suddenly threw up a pink fluid and has been doing that on and off. He's no longer bounding around everywhere and asking about everything. Samantha's upset and shocked by this occurrence and is literally holding him in her arms. She's become attached to the little thing and I confronted her about it. She says that she's only trying to educate him and familiarize him with the world. She also told me how she's trying to see if she can get him to possibly work with us in purging the mechanical alien presence from the planet. But regarding Galileo's condition, we don't know how he became ill so unexpectedly. Samantha's going to run some more tests on him shortly to figure out what's going on. End recording._"

The four Autobots were all equally intrigued by this report. There were some viruses and ailments within their species that could make one vomit up energon but they unanimously felt the cause of Galileo's illness was tied to his own creator; the Allspark fragment itself. The fact that Silas noted Galileo was playing with the shard and received a shock from it seemed to be tied into that cause of illness as well.

"It's possible that the shard gave off a pulse of energy while it was still affected with Human blood," said Ratchet. "Galileo was adversely affected by this and suffered from the corrupted radiation."

"Is it possible for a Human genome to become fused with a part of the Allspark?" Bulkhead asked his comrades. "I don't think it would be possible but then again, we don't even fully understand the mysteries of the Allspark ourselves…"

Before they could propose anymore theories or make comments, the next recording began without warning.

"_April 7__th__ 2152,_" Silas said. "_Galileo is not Galileo anymore. He is but he is not. He's different now. He's alive but…changed. Samantha barged into my office, frantic and in a state of shock. She said how she went to go check on Galileo to see how he was doing but he wasn't there. Someone else was there in his place…_"

(Decepticon base)

When Megatron himself commed him, Lockdown knew that something significant was amiss. The Decepticon leader had instructed him to report back to the mine as soon as possible and to bring Amanda and Darien with him. The details regarding this were brief and minimal; all was said that a group meeting needed to be called to discuss and bear witness to an important, pivotal matter. Without a moment to lose, Lockdown herded his charges into his vehicle mode and drove off to meet up with everyone at the mine.

The two siblings had pestered him, asking him why they were called in alongside him. He replied by saying he had no clue what Megatron had in store for everyone either. They were also asking him about their sister's whereabouts since they knew she had left last night with Blitzwing. Darien wasn't so concerned about her absence since he had trusted Blitzwing with taking care of Cynthia. Amanda on the other hand, was hungry for answers but she didn't want to bomb her cell phone with texts and calls.

The bounty hunter stood beside Amanda and Darien, preferring to keep by them. He thought it odd but he found himself establishing a bond with the two Humans that tempted him to stick beside them rather than Lugnut who was perpetually on Megatron's right. Lockdown knew it could be potentially fatal to get too close to them but for the time being, he found himself more at peace and content with his role as Amanda's guardian. It was different and he didn't think he'd enjoy looking over a nineteen year old and transporting her everywhere. He had built up a strong tolerance for her and he admired her pep and spunk. Even though he would've been repulsed by it earlier, he saw that she most certainly started to grow on him to the point where he found himself being overprotective of her at times.

"May I have some answers?" Amanda said, placing her hands on her hips. "And where the heck is Blitzwing and my sister?"

"They are enroute," was Megatron's answer. "I sent Starscream and my medic after them. Blitzwing is very ill and he needs to be brought back here for a more thorough investigation."

"I know he's mentally ill."

"In the physical sense…"

"How can he get sick? He's a robot!"

"Grudgingly, I must admit that our species is alike in certain ways… one of them being that we are equally capable of catching diseases and bugs just as you organics do."

"Is it contagious?"

"No. Neither is this particular affliction transmittable to his kind. However, it is one that will probably make him beg for being sent to the Well instead."

"Wait, who's the 'medic'?" Darien butted in. "We don't have a medic… Or do we?"

"A Decepticon rejoined our ranks last night," said Lugnut. "Megatron was so pleased to have one that he welcomed him in without a moment to spare."

"_Great another bot to ram helms with,_" Lockdown thought. "_Hopefully he's not an arrogant son of a glitching pretty bot._"

The roar of boosters and the deep hum of a hot rod then filled the mine without warning. The noise grew louder as the two robots drew closer with their passengers. Seconds later, Starscream flew in as he still held Blitzwing. Knock Out pulled up and morphed into his anthropomorphic state, ending up with having Cyndi sitting in the palm of his servo.

Upon seeing the sleek, handsome looking red car race into the room, Amanda focused her attention solely on it. Her eyes widened as the ground-based vehicle transformed into the robot's true state. She eyed him up and down, almost ignoring the fact her sister was sitting in his servo. Hands down, Mandy judged him to be the most attractive Cybertronian she had ever seen. His faceplate was pale but smooth and perfectly symmetrical and easy on the eyes. The love she nutured for Lockdown had been cast aside as she stood in awe of this aesthetically appealing robot.

"Oh," Lockdown muttered with contempt upon seeing Knock Out. "I'm getting' bad vibes already…"

Knock Out lowered his servo to the ground without saying anything to Cynthia. She stepped out of it and watched as Starscream approached Megatron.

"Retrieve Professor Sumdac from his confines," Megatron ordered Lugnut.

"Yes, Master," his lackey replied.

Starscream bent down and set Blitzwing onto the ground. He then rose up and backed off to allow those with medical training and knowledge take over.

"Where the heck were you?!" Mandy hissed lowly at her sister. She noticed Cynthia's shirt, realizing she never had this in her wardrobe. "And where'd you get that huge shirt?"

"Shut up, please," Cyndi replied. "I don't need someone else commenting on this thing."

"So what's going on with Blitzwing?" Darien questioned.

"I don't know. Knock Out…"

"You mean the red car?" Amanda cut in, not really caring about Blitzwing's condition or Lockdown's presence for that matter. "His name's Knock Out? I can see why…"

"He's not impressive," Lockdown noted crossly.

Cynthia decided to not say anymore especially since Amanda told her yesterday how she was in love with Lockdown. Now it seemed like she was infatuated with the Decepticon medic. Instead of saying anything else, she left her siblings and cautiously walked over to where Blitzwing was on the ground.

"You might want to take a walk or go elsewhere, femme," Knock Out said, placing a stabilizing servo in front of her path. "This can get potentially ugly."

"Look," Cynthia said, placing a palm against her forehead. She could feel a headache begin. "I want to be by his side because I am worried. I was there for him when he first started getting sick and I think I should stay with him."

Knock Out saw Lugnut pluck Sumdac up from within his cell. The cyclopean 'Con then carried the organic professor over to where Megatron and Starscream stood around Blitzwing's shrunken, withered form on the floor. He gritted his dental plates as he saw another Human interfere in on his operations. Hatefully, he allowed this to happen since this was Megatron's will to include Sumdac on the matter.

"Fine," he said. "Join us if you have to. Just stay out of my way." He smirked fiendishly. "I don't want to cut you open by accident…"

He turned his back on her and went over to tend to his patient. Cyndi carefully followed him, feeling out of place with standing alongside the metal titans.

"Megatron," Blitzwing said weakly. He could barely keep his optics open and they were no longer the strong, vibrant ruby color they used to be. Now his optics appeared to be duller and dimmer. "Vhat's happening to me..?"

Megatron didn't say anything in reply to Blitzwing's questions. All he did was keep on staring at him, looking for the changes he feared that would be made manifest within a matter of time.

"Well, if you hadn't guessed it already," Knock Out said, stopping only feet away from the shrunken triple changer and kneeling down, "you're ill. Now, we think that the cause of your unfortunate virus is the Allspark fragment you retrieved about two days earlier. You see, when I arrived here last night, Lord Megatron briefed me on everything that has been going on. He also revealed to me how he and Professor Sumdac had discovered that something was wrong with the shard you retrieved from MECH." He eyed Sumdac when he saw Lugnut place him on the ground. "Professor, would you like to break the news kindly to our patient? After all, you were the one who made this disturbing discovery."

"I-I suppose," Sumdac said, a little caught off guard that Knock Off included him. He looked down at Blitzwing. "Uh, Blitzwing… when I was studying that shard you acquired, I found a foreign contaminant that became ingrained in the shard… What I mean by that is, uh, that contaminant became a part of the shard."

"Cut to ze chase, Human!" Hothead growled. His temper was somehow more foul than usual due to his poor health. "Tell me vhat's vrong vith me!"

"You transported the shard the whole trip, right?"

"Yes," Icy said, usurping Hothead. He realized that acting angry and outrageous was only going to make things worse. "Zat's correct…"

"Did anything unusual happen while you held it?"

"Shortly after ve vere making our vay back here, ze fragment gave off a pulse. It ran zhrough my chassis but my electrical systems didn't go offline nor did I feel anyzhing vrong or painful. I even ran a diagnostic scan to make sure I vas alright and nozhing unusual came up." He paused, feeling that this was leading up to something. "Vhy? And vhat is zis foreign contaminant?"

"The scan I conducted on the Allspark fragment revealed that Human DNA was found within it. It's become a part of the shard…"

"Vait, vhat does zat mean exactly?!" He began to panic. "Am I going to go offline?!"

"Even worse," said Megatron. "You are changing at an internal and molecular level as a result of being exposed to it. I've decided to isolate the shard with Professor Sumdac to reduce the chances of anyone else sharing this plight with you, Blitzwing."

"Can I guess vhat's going to happen to me?" Random asked. Even in the face of such grim prospects, he was painfully sunny.

"Do you want to see for yourself?"

Megatron walked away and grasped one of his swords that leaned up against the side of his throne. He then approached the circle formed around Blitzwing. Everyone had immediately thought he was going to slay his minion.

"Knock Out, hold him down," Megatron ordered. "He's going to squirm a bit."

"Wait!" Starscream and Cynthia yelled out in unison. The two even glanced at each other, shocked they said it in perfect synchronization.

"I won't kill him. I just need to confirm something for everyone in this room." He wasn't entirely surprised that Cyndi spoke out but he was curious when Starscream had expressed some concern with what he was about to do. "The pain will be momentary but everyone needs to bear witness to this."

Knock Out pinned Blitzwing to the ground by placing a servo across his legs and pulling his arms back with his other servo. Random didn't seem to mind this. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it.

"Ooh, I feel a bit better now zat I'm stretching!" he chirped. His smile faded a little. "But I still don't like ze doctors…"

Megatron held the hilt of the sword tightly and sternly in order to make sure he was controlling his power and strength properly. He was not keen on accidentally killing one of his greater minions. However, if things were going to unfold the way they seemed to be heading, the Decepticon leader was going to have to wonder whether it was appropriate to keep using his services…

The silver mech lowered the killing blade down to Blitzwing's chest. Maneuvering it carefully, he placed its tip just a mere few inches above the Decepticon seal. He pressed harder into his hide, making Blitzwing flinch and whimper as it pierced his metal flesh. Then he continued to make a clean cut, making the wound stretch from shoulder piece to shoulder piece. The cut wasn't deep enough to cause serious damage or internal injuries of any kind but it was made deep enough to encourage bleeding to occur.

When the act was done, Megatron drew his weapon back and gently set it aside. Swiveling his torso, he turned his attention back to his ailing servant.

"Do you see how he would've been bleeding energon?" he directed his question to everyone in the room. "Nothing is coming up to the surface. He has lost a great quantity of his lifeblood by vomiting and it's likely that the rest of his energon is being kept within his most internal recesses to keep him functioning as best as possible…"

Before he could say anymore, he was silenced when he saw a different colored liquid begin to seep up to the surface of the cut. He narrowed his optics to try to determine its coloration. As the substance reached the surface, the wound finally began to bleed. When it bled, it was of a very familiar red hue…

It was blood.

"Spooky," Knock Out remarked.

Cyndi couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was impossible from what she had known about the Cybertronian species. Humans had blood and Cybertronians had energon flowing through their veins. Their blood was a bright pink. But the fluid he was leaking looked an awful like Human blood to her. What she was seeing made no sense.

Being as tender as possible, she leaned over Blitzwing and wiped her fingertip across a thin trickle of the crimson fluid. She then brought it back up to her face and rubbed it between the tip of her thumb and pointer finger. There were no words that could come from her mouth as she stood dumbfounded and speechless at the macabre discovery.

"Blood," she finally choked a word out after a few moments passed. "Yes, this is blood."

"Well, I'll be," Lockdown muttered. "Poor Blitzwing."

"Did she just say 'blood'?" Darien sputtered. "What blood?!"

Amanda was still enchanted by the presence of the newest addition to the local Decepticon team. Currently, she didn't care about Blitzwing's curious case at all. All she was capable of doing was staring at Knock Out, eyeing him from stabilizing servo to the proud-looking, pointed crest on his helm.

"Perhaps this really is happening after all," Sumdac said, glancing over at Megatron.

"Yes, it sure seems to be the case…" Megatron noted. His faceplate was heavy, dark and somber.

"Vait, blood?" Random said as he still squirmed whilst Knock Out pinned him. He tilted his helm up and looked downward, seeing the blood slowly stream from his wound. "Cool! I have red energon flowing from me!"

"Imbecile!" Lugnut thundered. "You have no energon left in you!"

"Zat's impossible!" Icy raised his voice, sounding like he was about to suffer a nervous breakdown. "Vhen a bot doesn't have enough energon flowing zhrough him, he slips into a deep stasis lock and zhen goes offline if ze levels continue to remain critical! I have enough in me if I am still online! I admit I lost a lot earlier but I'm still functional!"

"You are changing. The Allspark is corrupted and it is transforming you as we speak. Your systems have adapted to the new liquid within you and eventually, the systems will alter themselves… And then when that happens, you will no longer be yourself. The thing you will be then is a disgrace."

Starscream was quite astonished himself. What Megatron had informed him before he sent him and Knock Out to retrieve Blitzwing was shocking in itself. But upon seeing him seep a biological, earthly, substance from within his chassis that should've been energon, he was at a loss for words. He began to feel as fearful as he felt days earlier at the hands of MECH. This situation frightened him a lot more than even when Blitzwing was being reformatted as a triple changer after he had been seriously injured in a battle. The real possibility that he could be imprisoned within his new state forever was a fate worse than being made a slave of the Autobots in Starscream's optics. There was concern in his spark for his sibling but he dared not to show it before Megatron and the others. Besides, Megatron himself didn't even know the two were kin.

"Get jour fragging servos off of me!" Hothead yelled at Knock Out.

"Oh, touchy," Knock Out grinned and pulled away from the patient. "So, our fears have been confirmed… Since this is extending into a field which is certainly not my forte, I will allow our friend Professor Sumdac and Megatron take over and decide what to do with you, Blitzy."

"I'm a professor of robotics, not a physician!" Sumdac said. "I can't treat broken arms or diagnose illnesses!"

"Then I will decide," Megatron said, craning his helm up high. "I have already made up my mind regarding this. The Allspark shard is clearly a danger to all Cybertronian presences within this cave and I forbid anyone to tamper with it. So, it shall remain with Professor Sumdac since he will be unaffected by it. I also do not wish to have a sick…" He no longer even wanted to refer to Blitzwing as a Decepticon anymore because of the circumstances. "…creature in my lair. However, until the symptoms and weakness have dissipated, I want him back here to see if he is fit to serve me. For now, I want him quarantined." He eyed Cynthia. "That means, Ms. Preston, I want you to house him once more. He will be better off with you anyway."

Conveniently, Amanda finally paid attention to that detail. She completely quit oogling over the red medic and tried her hardest from bursting out in rebellion.

"_Great, now he's going to be throwing up all over everything in the apartment now,_" she thought. "_Stupid Megatron, why can't you make him stay here?_"

"All this goes into effect as of now," said Megatron. "As usual, Lockdown will remain with you three and he will help you transport Blitzwing."

"Shouldn't we wait until night before we sneak him into our apartment?" Darien suggested. "I don't think we want our neighbors to find out. We got lucky and no one found out last time."

"That's because our neighbors are old people who sleep all the time and crackheads who go out to the city to party and only come home to get a shower and change their clothes," Mandy miserably remarked. "Let's get him in now. There's no point in waiting."

Blitzwing's helm was swimming. Amidst the throbbing achiness and pain he was suffering from his violent purging, he had to digest all this startling information. The fact he now had blood flowing through him instead of energon and that he was slowly making a metamorphosis into another living creature was a tough one to swallow. Within his helm, he had realized what he was becoming after all these discoveries and the words of those present had enlightened him on his condition.

"Zhere is no cure?" he asked softly.

"Like all viruses, it must run its course," was Sumdac's reply. "We don't have one. I'm sure there could be a way to reverse the effects but we fear it may be too late to save you. If any drastic action was taken now, it could also kill you. More than anything else, you require rest."

"So vhen it is all done, I vill remain as I am until I perish?"

"Maybe," Knock Out said rather apathetically. "Some tests, science and luck may be our only shot at getting you back to your crazy self."

Starscream lifted his optics away from Blitzwing's form. He gazed over at Sumdac's prison cell and activated his scanners. Within no time at all, he managed to root out the damnable Allspark shard. It was contained within a rather unassuming, simple, gray, metal box that was sealed shut with a combination lock. Its energy signature was as typical as the other shards'. In fact, he noticed it was odd that despite the reality it was corrupted by absorbing Human DNA, it didn't seem to give off any unusual signals or any other kind of alteration in its signature.

"_It still has the same signature as all the others,_" he reasoned with himself. "_But it's been tainted with an organic genome. Does that mean its true nature is remaining dominate over the DNA? If that's the case, what does that mean? What will he end up really turning into?_"


	48. Inhuman

**Thank you for the reviews/fave/alerts! So this chapter...some of you may dislike it and some of you may like it. I decided to mix things up a little bit as opposed to how some things went back in 'Love is a Lake'...just because I could :3 that and I'm a cruel goddess to OCs in my stories. Other than that, nothing else to really say. Please enjoy as always! :)**

Chapter 48 Inhuman

(Autobot base – 9:00pm)

Carefully, Prowl cradled the recorder in the palm of his servo. When he judged that the audio file had been rewound enough, he pressed a button on the side of the device, halting its regression. The tip of his digit hovered above the 'play' button and glanced over at the other bot whom was present in the room with him.

"Why are we listening to the last file again?" he asked the red and blue mech.

"Because I need to confirm that this actually happened and I wasn't mishearing things," said Optimus.

"We all heard it. Silas turned out to be a far more evil man than we originally suspected. As it turns out, as Humans are capable of great compassion and fortitude, they are equally capable of horrible villainy and sin. Not only did he plan on eliminating our presence on this planet, he had no qualms about killing members of his own species to further his goals."

"Prowl, please play it. Captain Lennox left it here with us because he said it would serve us better than him. We might as well make use of it and listen through the recordings again to get our facts straight. I know what we're dealing with…"

A rare, mischievous smirk came across Prowl's gray faceplate.

"I almost hope Megatron and his servants are unaware of just what they're holding," he said. "Perhaps we should be on the lookout for any odd Humans running around? If that's the case, the Decepticons' resistance would take a heavy blow…especially if they found out what became of Megatron."

Without waiting for a reply of any sort from Optimus, Prowl pressed the 'play' button. The same, familiar white noise greeted their audio receptors and they patiently waited for the voice of the man to break the silence.

"_April 11__th__ 2152,_" Silas noted. "_I have not said anything over the past few days because my time and thoughts had been consumed by what has been transpiring during that period. As it turned out, that 'someone' that I found in Galileo's tiny room was Galileo. He had been turned into a Human through the shard. He looks just like any other person; eyes, hair, nose, arms, legs, skin, et cetera… The only thing visibly unusual about him was that his eye color was the same as it was in his true form. I couldn't believe what I was seeing before me but Samantha had adamantly told me that this was indeed Galileo. He looked about to be the size of a five year old but he seemed taller than average. _

_He was about as shocked as I was about his new condition according to what Samantha said. He had no recollection of how it happened and when she told him to try to turn into a robot again, he failed. In his robotic form, he was capable of transforming into the lifeless computer he once was but in this fleshy body, he was helpless and powerless._

_I told her to take him to the local doc we have here and I personally led them to him. A typical check up was done. A stethoscope indicated he had a living, beating heart. An x-ray was done, showing that he had a normal Human skeletal structure. I instructed the physician to take a blood sample and he did that… Just this morning, he gave me the results of the tests he conducted on Galileo's sample. In his blood, that's where his seemingly organic nature was betrayed._

_There was an unknown element found in his blood. It was an element not found in the Human species, let alone any blood sample on Earth. As he described it to me, it reminded me much of the properties that Samantha theorized could make up the armor or metal that the Cybertronians are consisted of. There is iron in his blood but this mystery element doesn't seem to adversely affect any of the other compounds in his body or the iron. _

_He also told me further results about the examination he did on Galileo. There were also other internal physiological differences he found that led him to believe that Galileo transformed into a new species of Human. He calculated that if he grew up, he easily be over six feet tall and have a more defined and possibly even healthier muscle mass and organ system than our own species. In short, this alien-spawned new species, or ubermensch of sorts, was physically more powerful and durable than our own kind. It was also potentially possible that they could outclass us intellectually as well. _

_Naturally, this startled me and bothered me. When Galileo was in the examination room, he had cleanly bit through the wooden stick placed upon his tongue when the physician looked down his throat. Samantha also held his hand when his blood was drawn and he held her so tightly that her face turned red and she was nearing tears. So, I decided that this abomination of nature needed to be taken care of. I also thought it was possible that he could also be a threat to me._

_Last night, while Samantha slept, I took Galileo from his cot. I carried him out of the facility and walked down to the woods. I must've walked for about half a mile and then stopped. When I stopped, he woke up. I set him down on his feet and I told him Samantha asked me to take him out for a walk since he always wanted to explore the outside world. _

_When he started to walk away, I took my magnum out of my back pocket. I aimed for the back of his head and pulled the trigger. I shot him and he died before he fell to the ground. To make sure no one would find him, I carried him to ravine a few hundred feet away where I shot him again and threw him in there._

_I made sure he was dead by checking his pulse; there was nothing there. Not only that, the bullet had cleanly went through his skull, leaving a hole that I could literally see the other side through. Although he was a little powerhouse, one clean shot to the head ended him. _

_I feel no regret in killing him since he wasn't even a real Human. He became a highly advanced skinwalker of sorts… We'd never find out if he was capable of gaining his old body back or if he was going to be in that state forever. I wasn't going to take chances. What's done is done. Samantha hasn't asked me of his whereabouts yet but I will tell her the truth of whether she likes it or not. She will understand why I've done what I did. Galileo was her little science project… I can give her a bigger and better one when I target a real alien… End recording._"

Besides this recording that was made over three months earlier, there were no others found on the memory card. The Autobots had hoped that more recent entries were on it, primarily ones that were dated a day before or during the incident when the Decepticons attacked. Yet they figured that possibly Silas had no time make a documentation about the events since he was much too focused on what was occurring at that time. Some first person insight about the assault would've been helpful for them especially in determining the true identity of the three supposed spies allied with the Decepticons.

"And there's nothing else for us to hear," Prowl said, turning the recorder off. "It truly is a shame that we were never aware of the Galileo's existence. We could have saved him from the rubble if he was still alive and perhaps gave him a new life here in Detroit."

"It makes me feel even angrier over what Silas had done and what he had in store," said Optimus, shaking his helm heavily. "I don't think I've ever been happier to have Human die. It's not like me to say that but I think he is perhaps the most evil organic we've made contact with in some way or another."

"Now these recordings didn't reveal anything to us about what a few days earlier up in Canada. For now, I think the best testimony we have is what that survivor told Ratchet. And I still think I should go out and do some spying on that one girl."

"Not yet, as I've said."

Optimus often questioned his own ability to lead at times but he also needed to remind himself to act like the chief of his team. That often included scolding and sternly reminding his teammates. He didn't like to be so bossy and controlling but neither did he want to look vulnerable and pitiful.

"I have patience," said Prowl. "Thank Primus I have that."

"Since the Decepticons have the tainted Allspark shard, I think we should double our efforts in rooting out their base of operations. It's possible that the shard's radiation might've infected them too and altered them as well. If that's the case, we need to find them and imprison them. Then we need to try to establish communications with Ultra Magnus himself and inform him of what we've done. If that's the case, then the search for the Human spies may be pointless. They may even be discouraged from aiding Megatron anymore and resume their lives."

"I still think we should find the organics that were present with the Decepticons. They can very well be considered our enemies…"

(apartment – 9:15pm)

Blitzwing grabbed the quilt and pulled it up to his chin. Groaning in pain, he curled up beneath it and dimmed his optics down. He was lying on his side in Cynthia's bed, not feeling like moving an inch. The vomiting had ceased hours ago but now he was wracked with chills and his helm felt like it was overheating. His whole chassis ached and all of his personalities felt watered down and miserable. Since he arrived in the apartment, he had taken over her bed and hadn't moved from it since.

Off to his left, Cynthia was sitting up in the bed reading a book. He wanted her to remain by his side since he arrived, explaining to her that her presence was soothing and made him feel a little better knowing she was next to him. She didn't want to bother him much since he was ill so she resorted to reading next to him so that he could be appeased with her presence.

"Cyndi…" Random said hoarsely.

She folded a corner down on the page and then shut the novel she tried to make herself interested in.

"Yes?" she asked, leaning into him.

"Am I going to go offline?" he wondered.

"No, you'll be fine. Everyone believes you'll be alright. You're just going to…be a little different, that's all."

"I can never show my faceplate to zem again!" said Hothead, feeling his pride taking a massive blow just thinking about what lied ahead. "I vill be stuck in zat puny body for all time and Megatron vill eliminate me for my uselessness!"

"Hey, keep your chin up." She stroked the side of his helm.

"Vill jou still love me even after I become somezhing else?" Random interrogated, turning his helm to look her in the eye.

"Of course I will." She kissed him on the spot where his nose would've been. "Don't fool yourself into thinking I won't. And you shouldn't freakout too much about it since Knock Out and Professor Sumdac will be doing what they can to bring you back to normal as if nothing ever happened."

"I don't like it vhen jou lie to me like zat," Icy sighed. "Zhings vill not be happy and fine. I must learn to utilize my new shape, try to convince Megatron zat I am vorthy enough to be spared and…"

"I will help you all out with that. You helped me before Megatron made me his servant, so I will do the same for you."

"But jou're not ze one changing species."

Feeling irritable, cheated and miserable, he looked away from her and decided to try to settle in for the evening. He shut his optics and curled up in a fetal position.

Cyndi made a mental note that he made a solid point about that. Deciding to not anger him and have him lash out at her, she picked up her book and began to read again.

"Aczually..." Random said quietly.

"Yes?" She closed her book again and looked him directly in his optics.

Blitzwing rolled over onto his back and titled his helm upwards to focus his optics on her.

"I'm hungry," he said, sounding a lot like a toddler.

"I have some oil left over from when you lived with us for a month," Cyndi said, starting to get up. "It's underneath the kitchen sink. Do you want me to grab it for you?"

"Yes, zhank jou, Cyndi. I'm suddenly hungry and I vould like somezhing to eat."

"Okay, I'll be right back."

She threw the covers off her and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Cynthia hustled out of the bedroom and hurried towards the direction of the kitchen. Leaving him alone for even a minute or two made her feel nervous and edgy.

Making a beeline for the kitchen, she entered the room of her destination and marched over to the cabinet under the sink. She bent down and opened up one of the doors, immediately seeing a half consumed bottle of oil that he had not finished. Cyndi swirled it around in the bottle to see how much was exactly left. She had a feeling it wouldn't sate his appetite but it would do for now.

Closing the cabinet door, she stood back up and made her journey back to her bedroom. Once she made it into her room, she closed the door behind her with a soft click and walked over to his side of the bed.

"It just dawned on me now," she said. "With you being so ill, maybe you should keep your stomach empty. You might throw up all over again..."

Without saying a word to her, he yanked it out of her hand. He twisted the cap off and then began to drink it down greedily.

But before he could gulp down all the oil, his optics widened. Without a moment to lose, he quickly placed the cap back on and dropped it to the carpeted floor. There was still some oil in his mouth and it looked like he seemed to be extremely reluctant to swallow it. With hesitation, he eventually did a few seconds later. His faceplate contorted and puckered, looking like as if he had bitten into an excruciatingly ripe and sour lemon.

"Jou just can't vait to kill me!" Hothead yelled. "Jou're trying to kill me by serving zis horrible zhing!"

"This is your favorite kind!" she said, shocked by his outburst. "It's not old at all either!"

"Jou are correct," Icy said, placing a servo on his abdomen. "But I zhink my body is starting to reject even ze zhings I vould normally consume. Vhich only makes sense vhen jou zhink about it because I have blood instead of energon now..."

"Wait..." She had a realization about something. "If you can't eat metal and drink oil anymore, does that mean I can give you Human food?"

"Technically, I could partake in jour food no matter my condition but it vould only be appropriate and more necessary if I consumed my own specific zhings." He sighed ponderously and a morose expression still reigned supreme on his blue faceplate. "I suppose I can eat some of vhatever jou have here to sate my appetite."

"What do you want specifically..?"

"Feed me, femme!" Hothead growled.

"Before I decide to eat jou!" Random laughed softly.

Seeing it wasn't wise to keep a hungry 'Con waiting, she left her room again. Cynthia jogged into the kitchen once more. She walked over to the cabinets that hung up on the wall and peered inside to peruse the contents.

A box of cookies, granola bars, some potato chips and a tupper ware container filled with bon bons greeted her. She grabbed the bon bons and then shut the cabinet door.

Then she walked over to the refrigerator and opened it up. Inside, there was some cold pizza wrapped up in aluminum foil, a piece of blackberry pie sitting on a plate, a few cups of yogurt, some leftover grilled chicken breasts from a few days ago and some other miscellaneous and chilled food products. Shaking her head impatiently, she grabbed the plate of chicken and a piece of the blackberry pie.

With her arms filled with food, she hustled back to the bedroom where she found him eagerly awaiting for his food. He stared expectantly at her and for a moment, forgot about the achiness and pain that held his body captive. His glossa licked at his lips and he looked as if he was ready to pounce off the bed and snatch the small feast she brought to him.

"The chicken I have here is cold," she said, joining him by his side. "Do you want me to heat it up..?"

"Zat von't be necessary," Icy interrupted her, grabbing the plate of chicken.

Ravenously, he ripped the plastic wrap off the top and grabbed a piece. Despite the fact this was the more civilized of the three personalities, he tossed the chicken into his mouth without restraint as if he hadn't eaten anything in a millenium. Blitzwing didn't even bother to chew it up and instead swallowed it whole. The remaining piece was also quickly decimated in the exact same way as Cynthia looked back at him in shock and disbelief in how quickly he finished his meal. Having devoured the food within a grand total of seven seconds, he set the plate on the floor.

"MORE!" Hothead commanded, forcing Icy aside.

He made a grab for the piece of pie and greedily scarfed it down, not minding that he now had some of the pie smeared on his face. He even licked his digits off to get every single crum of the pie eaten.

"You are such a pig," Cynthia said in a dumbfounded tone. She gawked at what she saw, not believing what she was seeing.

"Oh, did jou get bon bons?" Random asked happily. "I can see jou brought some for me!" He made grabbing motions with his servos. "I'm still hungry!" The jack-o-lantern face chuckled impishly. "Give zem to me or I vill rip ze kitchen apart..."

Without a word, Cynthia handed the treat to him. Like a dog with a chewing bone, he gnawed on the hard object excitedly before crunching it in half with his large teeth and swallowing it.

Realizing this could probably take awhile and realizing it was probably for the best to allow him to eat his fill, she placed the rest of the food onto his chest and went off to get more from the kitchen.

(…)

To discuss her conflicting feelings and affections, Amanda wanted to gravitate towards her sister. But Cyndi was occupied with tending to Blitzwing and trying to make him comfortable in his hour of weakness. So, she decided to leave her sister alone since she didn't feel like having Blitzwing hear about her dilemma.

Darien was certainly available to converse with her but Mandy thought it would be awkward to discuss her situation to him. She was left with only one option as usual; neither did she really mind.

"_Because of my sister, I now find myself in love with giant robot men instead men of my own kind_," she thought as she walked through the wooded lot. "_Damn you, Cyndi. Now I feel like I need to brainwash myself into liking Human boys! But I can't help it that they remain much younger than them and…_" A dopey looking smile occupied her face. "_They're bigger, stronger and more charming than them… I can't believe this. I promised myself I would never let this happen and now I find myself in love with Lockdown and Knock Out. Oh, this is a mess… And I don't know which one to focus on._"

Once more, she kept her eyes peeled for a subtle ruby glow that stood out amongst the darkness. She often felt bad for Lockdown that he had to remain concealed in the woods behind the apartment complex. Mandy had suspicions that he was lonely and she didn't understand why he hadn't used his holoform more frequently in order to rid himself of his loneliness and join everyone else in her home. She also wondered why he hadn't followed Blitzwing's example and shrunk himself. The more she thought about it, the more she became concerned about him. Now she didn't regret trying to seek him out to spend time with him.

"Lockdown," she called out, "it's me. Do you want to talk for a bit? No one else wants to chat with me. I figured we could keep each other company like we always do."

She halted in her tracks when she heard leaves rustle about fifteen feet off the ground behind her. The blonde turned around, seeing his silhouette and his glowing optics as he squeezed in between two skinny maple trees. Grinning slightly, she tilted her head upwards and sat down on the ground.

"You called?" he asked, kneeling down to lessen their height difference.

"Yep," she said, feigning her happiness by forcing out a smile. More than anything else, she wanted to come clean to him.

"Well, what's up?"

"Nothing. Cyndi's too busy taking care of Blitzwing and Darien's doing his own thing. I came out here because I wanted to talk to you."

"I'm glad you came out because I was pondering over whether to call you out or not, Blondie. If you didn't come here for any particular reason, then I want to talk to you about something."

She always went to him first. Lockdown was rarely the one who approached or talked to her to initiate something. Needless to say, Mandy was somewhat surprised to see he actually wanted to discuss something at his urging. As it sunk in, she couldn't help to not feel a little nervous at the same time. A feeling in her told her it may have been about what happened in the mine earlier that day.

"Go on," she said. "I'm all ears."

Lockdown couldn't believe he was actually going to talk about this with her. But he saw it was necessary at the same time. He hated sounding or acting soft and believed that there was no room for him to even remotely act fluffy or soft-sparked. However, he had a legitimate reason to explain concern and go somewhat tender on her.

"I saw the way you looked at him," he started.

Her face went hot and her body became rigid.

"What are you talking about?" she pretended to be oblivious.

"Knock Out," Lockdown spoke of his name with hatred.

"What about him?"

"Blondie, don't play dumb with me. I heard you and Darien talk about him. While you were busy staring at him, I caught a glance of your face." His optics narrowed, his suspicions bristling. "You got a crush on pretty bot."

"That's not true! I was only staring at him because I cannot believe I have to come in contact with another goon loyal to Megatron!"

"You're lying and you know it. Besides me being quite the experienced bounty hunter, I'm pretty good at telling when someone's bluffing. Sweetspark, you've got your poker face on."

Since her infatuation for the newest Decepticon addition was still weighing in on her emotions, Amanda found herself in a pickle. True, she borne affections and feelings for Lockdown longer than Knock Out but this desire for the medic was far more powerful and immediate in contrast to the very slow attraction she developed for the green and black mech. She felt shallow for this but she couldn't help it. Knock Out was far more physically attractive than her first interest and Amanda tended to lean more towards that feature in selecting a love. Through spending much time with Lockdown, she came to see the physical charm he had; mainly the ruggedness which she came to see as sexy.

"Are you calling me out?" she asked with a tense, defensive tone in her voice.

"Heh, I sure can sense it in you," he noted. "But calling you out about you falling in love with that useless medic is for another time. I just wanted to warn you about him."

"Yeah, I know he's a Decepticon, I know to be careful…"

"That's your problem. You're not careful. You're young, naïve and reckless. Lugnut hates you, Starscream could care less about you, Blitzwing tolerates you and Megatron only sees you as an asset. You see, Knock Out is a medic but he prefers to take things apart rather than put them back together. If there was a Hippocratic oath Cybertronian doctors would take, he'd take it with his digits crossed behind his back. He knows he's good looking and he uses it to his advantage. Now I've never known any of his old conquests but I heard rumors he's an infamous spark-breaker. If he finds out you've got a thing for him and I bet he's already figured it out, he's going to play you and use you. He's not going to feel bad for breaking your heart and he's going to move on."

"Excuse me but what are you getting at?!" She was becoming angry with how he was lecturing her on her interests. "I never even said I wanted to consider him! I just think he's very handsome, that's all! Are you actually jealous?!"

He scoffed loudly. Lockdown leaned in closer to her.

"Kid, I'm only warning you because I'm your guardian," he said. "I admit it, I like you. Despite the fact you can be a shallow glitch, you've grown on me." He ground his dental plates, trying to select his words carefully before speaking. "You're my responsibility. Megatron told me to watch after you and I'm going to do it."

Although Lockdown wasn't really the type to actively search after an interest, he was amused and intrigued that he discovered Amanda had feelings for him. To see her suddenly divert her attention and admiration to Knock Out, he was a bit jealous and incensed. Without a doubt, he felt protective of her; to him, it almost felt instinctual to protect her because she was so naïve. He didn't mind stepping in and shielding her if it called for it because he wanted to be the one to do so. She was his responsibility and his alone. He believed he wasn't in love with her but he knew for a fact he felt something for her.

"I don't like to admit things like that but it's true," he went on.

"If it makes you feel better, I have something to tell you," she said, shaking a bit in fear. Mandy held herself.

Lockdown didn't back off or cease staring into her pale green eyes. He had a feeling he knew what was ready to roll off the tip of her tongue but he wanted to hear it for herself and see the expression on her face.

"I'm waiting," he said darkly.

"Bear with me, this is very hard for me to say," she stammered.

"Usually it's very hard for you to shut up." He smiled as he said that.

Amanda laughed shortly and exhaled.

"I've turned into my sister in a way," she said. She threw her arms up in exasperation. "Heck with it!"

The nineteen year old bit her lower lip. Her eyes ceased to look into his optics for a few seconds before they wandered back. Almost as if she was trying to reach out and pet a sleeping lion, she extended her hand. Amanda lovingly placed it on his faceplate. She intensified her stare, refusing to sever her gaze. Pulling back the floodgates of her mouth and heart, she revealed her true feelings to her guardian.

"I am in love with you, Lockdown," she stated seriously and purely.

There were no lies or bluffing as far as he could tell. He could tell this was no joke as soon as she set her hand upon his face. While he still looked at her, he did a scan on her, seeing her heart palpitating rapidly within her ribcage. Lockdown deactivated his scanner without her knowing he caught a peek of her internals.

"Hmm, that's what I thought," he said smoothly. The bounty hunter knew it was only going to be matter of time before she'd tell the truth. He was still a little shocked and even confused that she fell for him. "I remember the Fourth of July firework show… that's what led me on."

Mandy didn't understand why he wasn't silent as if he was shocked. Her fears were becoming realized and then she began to regret confessing her love for him. Her stomach felt like it was turning sour and rotten and her heart quickened as her anxiety tortuously ascended.

Lockdown reared his helm back, retreating from and rejecting Mandy's warm and gentle touch. He continued to study her face, seeing paranoia creep onto it. There was certainly no way he was going to place his lips upon her face. That would only make things all the more strange. He could've sworn he felt sorry for her. His neutral expression then became a small frown.

"I just wanted to let you know I am truly flattered and surprised anyone would ever fall for the likes of a rascal like me," he stated with a dismissive and cold tone. "Amanda, listen, alright? I…" This was perhaps the most awkward situation he had been in for many stellar cycles. "I don't want to hurt your feelings. I don't want to hurt you at all…" He growled angrily at his incompetence with being sincere, open and compassionate. "I'm kind of the lone wolf type but closing myself off completely from others was never really out of the question although I do like being self-reliant and all…"

Amanda felt her heart shatter like a fine glass figurine in her chest. She could feel tears well up in her eyes and a hot warmth encompassed her entire body. Her anger and sorrow swelled within her and was full to bursting. All the love and joy in her withered and dried up like a vase of a forgotten roses.

"You don't feel the same way I do about you..." the young woman sighed morosely. It felt as if someone was squeezing her heart.

"I'm not going to lie and tell you I'm in love with you," Lockdown said with firm conviction. "I'd only be hurting you even more if I said that. Truth be told, I don't love you. I know you don't want to hear it but it's the truth…"

"Then what do you see me as?! It took me so much courage to say it to you! I loved you longer before Knock Out showed up and as long as I'm with you here now, I don't even want to focus on him!"

"I like your courage, Blondie. I do. I admire you and your spunk. But we're too different."

"Don't lie to me, Lockdown!" The tears had no restraint now. "Look at my sister and Blitzwing! I want to have what they have! I want us to be together like they are! I don't care that I'm Human and you're from another planet! I'm in love with you and I want to claim you before someone else takes you from me!"

"You have to give me some credit too! I don't let me feelings be known so easily, not even with myself! It's very hard for me to admit that I even feel protective of you and consider you as a friend of mine! Yes, we are of a different species and to be honest, I don't care that your sister and Three Face are together… What I mean that we are too different is that I think you're too immature for me. You're too much of a diva. I've seen past your faults but I think it would only break us apart if we tried to get serious."

"I'm wrong about something… I thought that since you don't belong to the Decepticons or Autobots, you'd somehow be more…relatable. Blitzwing is a Decepticon and has more of a heart than you ever will! That's the irony…" She snarled fiercely at him, retracting her fingers and making two fists. "You're the monster out of the two! You are a coward and you could never learn to love anyone!"

Lockdown's patience was dwindling at an alarming rate. He was tempted to snatch her up and squeeze her in his servo to scare her and get her to settle down but he didn't want to end up harming her in his rage. Instead, he balled up his fist and punched into the ground, making the earth tremble beneath the blow.

"Possibly the most important trait our species share is that we are both capable of love," he debated. "Perhaps I will grow to love you but right now, you are too young for me. Grow up a bit more first."

"So that's your answer?" Mandy concluded, wiping her tears away.

"Yes… Now don't you dare do something foolish or dangerous in an attempt to make me fall in love with you. I will only pity you if you do that. I have told you I am concerned for your safety… Why else would I warn you about Knock Out? I can clearly see you're upset. Buck up, Mandy… There'll be many more times where you'll be disappointed in your life."

Amanda stood up on her feet and shook her head heavily. Then she turned around and started to walk away from him. Her sole plan for the rest of the evening was crying herself to sleep.

"Whatever, that's fine," she said. "I figured I wasn't good enough for you anyway. And don't worry, I'll take your rumors of Knock Out seriously. I don't want my heart broken a second time. Have a good night, Lockdown. I'll see you tomorrow."

He didn't stop her from walking back to the building. Lockdown figured he'd only make things worse if he prevented her and tried to explain to her more. He still kept an optic on her as she walked out of the woods and made a right as he disappeared around a corner in order to make sure she was alright.

Deciding to turn in for the evening, he transformed into his vehicle mode. He dimmed his red headlights and forced himself to slip into recharge.


	49. Skin Deep Differences

**Guys, thank you for the reviews/faves/follows! I apologize for the rather late update. Been busy with life stuff, laziness, work and I've been working on and off on another story I've been trying to work on for a year. Hopefully you guys didn't lose hope, patience and interest and will stick around! Anyway, the chapter... It's fairly obvious with what will transpire in it but I threw in some little surprises here and there for the Hell of it :3 I also wanna thank **Fruity Sangheili** for helping me out with some of Knock Out's lines in this chapter (even though it was a few months ago. LOL) since I was being a little paranoid whether I got his fabulous personality nailed down or not. Anyway, please enjoy the chapter! Lemme know what you think too. I don't bite~**

Chapter 49 Skin Deep Differences

(next morning – 8:30am)

Although she wanted to bleed herself out in the bathtub by slitting her wrists or swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills in order to rid herself of the heartache, Amanda found herself to be too much of a coward to actually go about and commit suicide. The thought of blood and gore made her squeamish and the reality she'd no longer see her family and friends was too painful to bear, even more so than her heartbreak. She loved life too much to give it all up.

Her sleep was fitful and restless. She was too hot and then too cold. Her mind raced as she dwelt upon the conversation she had with Lockdown the previous night. More than anything else, she wanted to berate him and yell at him for not returning the love she had bore for him. The tiny amount of reason she had floating around in the tumultuous sea of emotions had prevented her from doing such a brash, hotheaded thing. The hopeful words Lockdown said about her maturing also gave her a sense of renewed confidence. She was still hurt from the encounter but as time passed, it wasn't as grievous.

After managing to squeeze out about five hours worth of sleep, she gave up on trying to milk some more slumber out. She emerged from her bedroom and made a beeline to the kitchen with the intentions to make herself some cereal and maybe some coffee.

When she entered the apartment, she made no contact with her brother or sister and went to her room. She kept the volume of her crying down to a minimum since she wasn't keen on having them detect her misery. Mandy preferred to treat it as a personal failure and issue that she and she alone needed to cope with. She was thankful no one knocked on her door to talk to her.

With heavy bags under her eyes, she grabbed a glass from the cabinet and shuffled over to the refrigerator. Orange juice was decided in coffee's place since she had no desire to even bother preparing it. She poured the cool, sour, orange liquid into her glass and set the carton on the counter. Then she took a sip and leaned against the counter, staring into her cup.

"Can you spare a sip?"

She almost dropped her glass in shock upon hearing Darien's voice. Mandy had thought she was alone but when she glanced over at the doorway that served as a marker between the kitchen and the living room, she spotted her brother.

"Yeah, I don't care," she said shortly, holding her drink out to him.

Darien walked over and relinquished it from her. He took a sip just as he asked for and gave it back to her.

"Have you heard about Blitzwing from Cyndi?" he asked.

"No," Amanda answered. "Unless if you want to open her bedroom door and see for yourself…"

"Uh, no."

"That's what I thought. I'm just happy it's not contagious."

"Yeah, I don't want to puke up pink stuff too. That's why I'm glad I'm not a robot." He examined her face. "You look like shit."

"Couldn't sleep. I had a hard time sleeping and I just felt horrible. I went outside to talk to Lockdown and then came back in not too long after that."

"You okay?"

"Don't worry, I'm okay. I'm just tired like I said."

"Do you really think that Megatron, Professor Sumdac and Knock Out are right in thinking about what's going to happen to Blitzwing?"

Amanda tried not to think about it. Now that she was pushing out last night's disappointment out of her head, she found herself focusing on the fact Blitzwing could be living alongside her again, this time under new circumstances. The thought began to nag at her now and she already felt a creeping sense of anxiety and paranoia sweep over her.

"Things might get really ugly if that's the case," she retorted. "And I really hope we don't end up having him live with us for the rest of our lives. I will drown myself in the lake before that happens."

"It won't be that bad," Darien said with positive hopes in mind. "The first time was bad because it was the first. Now we know what we're in for."

Amanda's jaw dropped slightly as she heard his words.

"Not really," she corrected him. "It's something different. Now I'm almost afraid to even knock on the bedroom door."

Darien could hear something behind him that sounded like bones popping. He shrugged it off, deeming it was Cynthia. He knew how old and stiff people sounded in the morning after waking up.

But when he saw a look of terror and astonishment establish itself on Mandy's face, he knew something wasn't right. He turned around, seeing what exactly had made his sister's blood run cold.

Standing in the doorway, smiling at them with friendliness and glee was a very naked, very tall man. He appeared to be taller than the average man, possibly around six feet and four inches high. His stance was proud and imposing, indicating that he didn't seem to have a care in the world. On his head, his hair was dirty blonde and messy looking. His beard was brown and was evident on his face but it wasn't very thick or unkempt. Although the two could see more of his body than they had even wanted to remotely dream of, his frame was buff and toned but not grossly beefy or muscled. His chest and shoulders were large and broad to support his sturdy frame and the large biceps he had. The man's jaw line was strong and his nose was smooth and slightly pointed but couldn't be exactly classified as Aquiline. His face was handsome and his beard had given his appearance a rugged look. The siblings reluctantly caught sight of his pelvis but forced themselves to focus on his torso and not observe its details.

Amanda had dropped her glass, making it shatter on the floor with orange juice still in it. To her great horror, she found herself staring at his pelvis and she put her hands over her mouth to hold back the tiny yelp she wanted to let loose. Darien's brows furrowed and he didn't know what to quite make out of the sight before him.

"Good morning, my organic friends!" the man greeted them. "I feel so vonderful! I almost feel as if I vas never even ill!" There most certainly was an accent in his chipper voice. "How about ve all go out for a svim at Erie vhen it gets hotter out?"

At last, Mandy screamed. Darien flinched from the intensity of her shriek and slapped his hand onto her mouth. Even with her muzzle, she still cried out, staring at the odd man.

"Ooh, are ve having a screaming contest?" he said, clasping his hands together and swaying his hips.

Upon seeing that particular motion, she fought to free herself from her brother.

"Oh my God, you're a person!" Darien said.

"Vell, of course I'm a person." The man's happy face faded away and his voice sounded deeper and more rugged. "Bot, really, but it's ze same zhing."

"No, look at yourself! You don't even know what happened?!"

"And just vhat are jou staring at, Amanda?" The voice changed yet again, this time sounding calm and scholarly. "Is zhere somezhing vrong vith my appearance?"

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON, YOU PERVERTED FREAK!" the girl screeched as she managed to free herself from Darien's hold.

"I have no need for clozhes."

"I CAN'T STOP STARING AT YOU! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON BEFORE I THROW MYSELF OUT THE WINDOW!"

"Blitzwing, PLEASE!" Darien urged, putting his hands over his eyes and feeling ashamed that he was quite outclassed.

"See!" Hothead held his hand out. "Zhere's nozhing…"

He stopped when he saw that this was not a black servo with a purple band. It was a fleshy, peachy hand. Blitzwing flexed his fingers, testing to see if it really was a part of his body or some kind of surreal dream he was locked in. A gasp slipped from his mouth and he looked downwards, to examine the rest of his body.

"Oh, I seem to have a malfunction vith my pelvic plating!" Random laughed.

He touched his abdomen, feeling his pectoral muscles. His arms stretched out and he twisted them around, testing them. Now that he saw he was in this new body and suddenly felt somewhat uncomfortable in it, he began to feel a blush settling in. Humans did indeed wear clothes and now it appeared he had become one of them. Then he exhaled heavily.

"It appears zat I do need clozhing after all," Icy conceded. "And I suppose zat zis is ze final result to my illness…"

The three then heard a sharp gasp. They looked to the direction of the living room, seeing Cyndi standing just a few feet away from the door way. Her eyes were glued to his shape.

Blitzwing turned around and faced her.

"Ta-da!" Random said. "Okay, so I do miss my real body but I guess zat I should have fun vith it anyvay before I'm cured!"

Cynthia rubbed her left cheek and began to blush as long as she spied upon his naked frame. She knew this was inevitable but actually seeing him like this before her made her aware of just how prepared she was for this new twist in her life. In no time at all, she found out she was completely ill-prepared for what lied ahead of her.

"Okay…" she said. "First and foremost, we need to put some clothes on you…"

"But I don't vant to!" Random complained. "I never vore clozhes before and I don't vant to try it!"

"You have to! I'm not giving you an option, Blitzwing! It is mandatory!"

"I'd offer a shirt and some shorts or something…" Darien remarked. "But I think all my clothes are six sizes too small."

"If it makes jou feel any better," said Hothead, "jou vere alvays puny and skinny. Looks like I have to valk around naked." He smirked arrogantly. "I have no problem vith zat too."

"No, I refuse to look at you butt naked!" Mandy vented. "Your body is a distraction!"

Cynthia jogged out of the living room and into the bathroom. She closed the door and grabbed a pink bathrobe that was hanging up on a rack bolted to the door. Then she opened up the door, exited the bathroom and reentered the living room.

"What in the name of all that is holy, good and pure are you doing?!" Amanda almost screamed. "That's MY bathrobe!"

"I'm not vearing zhat pink zhing!" Blitzwing debated. "It's too femmely and frilly!"

"Both of you shut up, please," Cynthia sighed. "Blitzwing, please put this on. We need to take you back to Megatron, remember?"

"I'm not going back vearing zhat! I vill be ze laughing stock of ze Decepticons for ze next million stellar cycles!"

"If he puts my robe on, I don't want it back," Amanda said crossly. "It'll be tainted. I will personally take it out into the parking lot, coat it in gasoline and burn it!"

Darien sighed loudly and bumped his forehead against the wall in impatience. He never was a morning person. Getting a scare first thing in the morning and watching a naked man and his sisters bicker amongst something as simple as clothing wasn't too thrilling for him. The boy also felt extremely awkward for even looking at Blitzwing and daring to examine him due to the fact he was right before him and quite unclothed.

"Please, I am begging you, put this on," Cyndi pleaded.

"Cyndi, I zhought jou vould be delighted to see me so naked," Random said, suddenly hugging her. He pressed himself against her. "I know jou zhink I'm attractive in my real body but I vant to know if jou still find me sexy!"

She felt like bursting into flames in the same way she did a few nights earlier in the barn. This wasn't as bad as that foray but it was pretty darn close to rivaling it. Cyndi was happy she had clothes on or she'd die of embarrassment.

"Despite zis new situation, I feel razher vell," said Icy. "I don't feel ill in ze slightest bit. It seems odd but I somehow feel invigorated and comfortable even zhough ze closest I've been to a Human vas zat unfeeling holoform." He kissed the crown of her head. "Yes, zis feels very nice… I vill have to get used to being in zis body but I vill make ze most out of it before my condition vill be zhankfully reversed."

"Let me go…" she whimpered, fully aware her brother and sister were watching everything. More than anything else, she was afraid of something embarrassing happening while this all went on.

"Oh, God, please remove yourself from my sight!" Mandy begged. "I cannot believe this is happening. I cannot belive I am seeing this…"

"Blitzwing, let me go!"

"Vhy, I like hugging jou!" Random sounded offended. "I vas scared earlier but now I am happy I am alive! I vill be better soon and somezhing new has happened…" He finally did let her go. "I vant to go out and do zhings! And no one vill ever know vhat I really am because I am one!"

Without a moment to waste, he tugged the robe out of Cyndi's hand and donned it much to Amanda's extreme distaste. Pridefully, he stood in the living room, thankfully clothed and still wore a huge smile on his face.

"I feel like crying now because that was my favorite robe," Mandy said weakly.

"It's comfy but it's also airy!" he commentated. "I zhink I vill vear zis robe until I am cured! It's so easy to put on and take off!" He winked flirtatiously at Cynthia. "I'll be ready for action at a moment's notice!"

"Okay, please, no more," Darien pleaded, feeling a headache develop. "I'm gonna go outside to tell Lockdown we'll be ready to meet up with Megatron and the others pretty soon. I need some fresh air."

Normally, Amanda would've accompanied him but she was still not in a pleasant enough mood to even gaze upon Lockdown's shape. As incensed and embarrassed as she was with having to deal with Blitzwing, she preferred to keep her distance from her love interest for now. She watched as Darien walked out of the apartment while he was still in his pajamas.

"Okay now that the time is now here, we need to establish some things," Cyndi sighed, trying to choke out her blush. "You need an alias as long as you remain like this. You can't go walking around in a pink bathrobe while we call you Blitzwing."

"Can I pick my Human name then?" Random asked rather innocently.

"Sure. What did you have in mind?"

He tapped his chin with a finger. While doing this, he discovered he had a beard and that fascinated him. It fascinated him so much he forgot about thinking up of a Human name for himself and devoted his attention to the coarse hair that occupied his chin.

"Oh cool!" the easily amused persona gushed. "I have a beard! I know vhat I vant my name to be for now… Captain Beard!"

"No, I am not calling you by that, it sounds like a name for a superhero reject," Cynthia shook her head.

"I like 'Shit for Brains'," Mandy smiled smarmily.

"Jour name can be 'Whore'," Hothead snapped at her.

"Please, stop!" Cyndi raised her voice.

The two of them stopped bickering and they looked at her. Cynthia exhaled slowly and deeply. She was in no mood to have her attitude spoilt and ruined. The woman was thankful Blitzwing had reluctantly but calmly accepted his new condition, mainly because he knew beforehand of what was in store for him. But with him and her sister bickering amongst each other yet again, she wanted to end it before it could escalate and make things much more dramatic than she wished.

"Please, get along," she said. "I am really in no mood to hear your fighting. I see and hear enough of it already. Now the two of you better get along or I'll be mad at both of you."

"She started it!" Blitzwing said in an accusatory tone.

"I don't care. We are adults so we all have to act like one. You won't get to sleep in my bed if you start anything." She turned to her sister. "And if you start anything, I will take your boombox and throw it out the window."

Both of them seemed displeased with the consequences Cyndi warned them of lest they should continue being unruly and disruptive of the peace. Exchanging acknowledging glances at one another, they silently agreed to stop the shenanigans.

"Let's hurry up and reunite vith Megatron so I may present myself," said Icy. "I am razher anxious to do it but it must be done."

He was eerily reminded of the time when Cynthia, Amanda and Darien had to endure their month long trial of wondering how to make themselves useful for Megatron. Even before the dawn of the first Human civilizations on Earth, he had served the Decepticon cause as a warrior. He had spent many stellar cycles honing his skills and working his way up the pillar of power up to the position he occupied now as one of Megatron's best and feared lieutenants. Now he felt as if he had been stripped of all that he endeavored for and had to work for it all over again but this time in a much more vulnerable state. To him, it was unfair and cruel. He had persecuted and killed the weak. Now he was amongst them.

(Decepticon lair – half an hour later)

He cursed his new body yet again. As a result of his nervousness regarding confronting Megatron, he discovered that he now had the ability to sweat. If he was Cybertronian, a cooling system would've conquered any overheating issues he had but now he was excreting urea, salt and other waste products from the pores on his skin. It bothered him so much that he started to become extremely self conscious and paranoid about his appearance. While driving up to the mind, he almost made Lockdown pull over so he could dunk himself into a pond to rid himself of the sweat. But upon seeing that the pond was stagnant, filled with mosquitoes, and was infested with other tiny pleasant microorganisms (thanks to Cynthia's knowledge), he quickly decided against it.

Now he wished he had taken his chances with contracting Giardia from the pond rather than stepping out of Lockdown's vehicle mode and into Megatron's throne room. Blitzwing could feel the optics of his fellow Decepticons fall upon him like a guillotine. He had no desire to look them in the faceplate and now he suddenly felt like a huge fool for even daring to wear a pink bathrobe. His face was flushed a deep red and now he finally knew how a blush felt.

"Pink suits you well," Knock Out droned softly. "Maybe you ought to consider adding it to your color scheme when you get back to yourself."

His pride mutilated, even Hothead kept quiet and continued to stare at his feet. The hard, rocky floor pressed into his soles and made him feel uncomfortable. The perpetual chill that the mine maintained all year round was something he finally noticed after waking up in his new body. The robe offered no real source of warmth for him and he resorted to crossing his arms across his chest to conserve body heat.

Blitzwing titled his head upwards to make contact with his lord and master. He bowed to Megatron, still being sure to pay respect to him even in his new state.

"Hopefully zis hindrance vill not prove to be too much of an obstacle for too long, sir," Icy said. "I-I trust zat Professor Sumdac and Knock Out are pioneering a cure or remedy of some sort to get me back to my true body?"

"They have an idea to possibly try to extract the cure itself from your body," Megatron revealed. His optics were fixed and unmoving on the shrunken and metamorphosed form of his minion. "I am optimistic about it to be completely frank. Like some sicknesses, I think it will simply wear off as it resides within you. You will probably go through another purging experience and then wake up once more in your real body."

"But for now," Professor Sumdac spoke up as he stood by Knock Out's side, "we will need to subject you to some tests."

Blitzwing glanced over at Cyndi who stood beside him for support. He half expected her to speak about the matter but he was mildly surprised to see she didn't say a thing. But as long as he stared at her, she finally spoke.

"The tests will most likely help you get cured," she said. "Go on."

He smiled at her. He grasped her hand and kissed her on her knuckles.

"Hopefully it vill not take too long," he said, releasing her.

Neither Lugnut nor Starscream didn't know what to make of the new Human male in their midst. They knew it was their comrade; he sounded like him, acted like him, stood like him and had eyes like him. Yet they still couldn't believe it was Blitzwing. The two Decepticons quietly studied his shape, not really feeling inclined to say much at all.

"Come along," Knock Out motioned to Blitzwing. "Let's try to figure out just what you're made of now. You want to get cured, right?"

"Of course I do," Hothead said, walking over to the robotics genius and the red medic.

As he joined them at their side, Megatron turned to follow them. The silver lord seemed intrigued enough with the mystery in order to accompany Sumdac and Knock Out in examining him. The four of them exited the throne room to begin the tests without any interference in one of the isolate chambers located within the back part of the lair.

"He is useless now," Lugnut said bitterly. "It makes my spark heavy to say it but it is the truth. He is far more valuable as the Decepticon he was than an organic insect."

"Not for long," Starscream reminded him. There was a hint of defensiveness in his voice. "The cure might not be found today or tomorrow but I highly doubt it will take more than a stellar cycle for him to return to his state of equilibrium." He paused for a moment before speaking again. "Lugnut, since Megatron has gone to oversee the testing, I am now temporarily in control of things. And as second in command, I order you to guard the entrance to the mine so that no one has tailed Lockdown."

"I think I'd be aware of any trailers…" the bounty hunter started.

"Still… Lugnut, do your duty."

Unhappily accepting the painful reality that Starscream was indeed telling the truth, Lugnut went off to go guard the entrance. Starscream kept his optics on the huge Decepticon, making sure he was walking away to go do his duty. When he saw that he was out of sight as the shadows of the corridor swallowed him up, the seeker turned his optics to Lockdown and the Humans.

"I wanted him out of the area while I conversed with you," he explained.

"Should I scram too?" Lockdown asked.

"There's no point in you leaving."

"Then what do you want?" Mandy wondered, her curiosity piqued.

"I want you, Lockdown and Darien as my witnesses."

"For what?" Darien inquired.

Starscream knelt down before Cynthia and looked directly into her eyes. The Human was unnerved by the intensity in them and took a slight step back to dispel the feeling of being encroached on and uncomfortable.

"He is one of you now," he said to her, ignoring the others present. "Now he is at a state far more vulnerable than he has ever been. He hasn't been as helpless and this weak since he was a sparkling. If the Autobots were as relentless and merciless as us when it came to enemy policies, they would have no trouble killing him if he was unfortunate with blowing his cover and shattering the guise of being a normal organic. Cynthia, I want you to take good care of him while he is in this state."

"Of-of course," she stammered, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the look in his optics and the severity in his voice. "I know better anyway since he is in a completely different body and whatnot…"

"He takes care of you very well and I would like to see you return the favor to him. The way he treats you is something that no other Decepticon could even dream of committing with an organic, especially a Human. As a Decepticon, he had every right to snuff your life, especially in the beginning of your relationship. Now, I see that he would feel dreadful if he even thought about doing that to you. Whether you may want to believe it or not, you've been blessed with an impressive luxury. Do not abuse it. Because if you do, you will answer to me…"

"And you will answer to me if you hurt my sister," Amanda said, stepping up and grasping her sister's arm. "My sister knows better, Starscream. Back off!"

Starscream averted his gaze from the two organic females and looked to Lockdown who was standing behind them. On the inside, his spark jumped when he saw that the green and black, mismatched Cybertronian was already staring right back at him. Lockdown shook his helm from side to side very slowly and gravely. The stern, obstinate look on his pale faceplate only reinforced his very serious aura.

"What an odd circle of friends we are," Starscream smirked.

"Funny how you're suddenly so concerned about him," Lockdown piped up. "Not too long ago, you asked me to spy on him and expose his relationship with a Human to Megatron."

"And look at you. You've become close to the Humans. You're even happy remaining Amanda's guardian."

"I have nothing else to do and you know it."

Hearing those words come from his speech synthesizer Amanda tighten her hold on her sister's arm. She already made a massive effort in even ignoring him and minimizing contact with him. Just when she started to regain hope that she could possibly salvage her dreams of being with him, she saw they were shattered again.

"I'm going to end it before it escalates," Starscream decided. "You are not the focus of my concerns anyway, bounty hunting rabble." He refocused himself on Cynthia. "Since I am incapable of comming Blitzwing normally for the time being and I do not trust Lockdown, you will be my connection. Give me your celluar device."

Immediately seeing where this was going, Cyndi quickly surrendered her cell phone from her pocket. She offered it up to him so that he could see it as he desired.

Starscream delicately clamped the mobile phone in between the tips of two of his digits and then stood up. He dropped it into the palm of his awaiting servo. Just as Cynthia had witnessed months earlier when Blitzwing asked to see the exact same phone, she watched as sparks of blue electricity ran through it.

A few seconds later, the phenomena ceased and he lowered himself again. She held her hand out to regain her phone and he dropped it to her.

"You're aware of what I just did?" he quizzed her.

"Yes," Cyndi nodded. "I can get a hold of you and you can get a hold of me."

"Don't forget it. I will certainly be contacting you whenever I feel the need to check up on his welfare."

"I will keep him out of trouble and teach him to blend in amongst us as long as the cure is still being worked on. I promise I will take care of him and do what is necessary to keep him protected from the Autobots and any other harmful people."

"You will watch after him too." Starscream said to Lockdown. "I can speak for Megatron himself when I say that he deems Blitzwing too valuable to forsake just yet. He will do what he can to remedy his affliction and I know that he will not give up so easily on him because he as proven worth and has been a loyal soldier of his for many, many stellar cycles. So Megatron will reward Blitzwing for his services in that way..."

"I would like to go see him as they…test him. I'm worried about him."

Starscream's stare was severe and grave. Just by observing the look on his faceplate, Cynthia could tell that he wasn't going to grant her request.

"It's best you remain out here with us," he said to her. "Knock Out does not appreciate it when others intrude on his medical procedures… The only time he makes exceptions is in the presence of superiors. Like his bretheren, he does not like Humans. He does not have a high opinion of you and your siblings, Cynthia."

(…)

Knock Out had to admit this was one Cybertronian medical marvel he never dreamed of becoming a reality, let alone a virus of sorts. He was no expert when it came down to the mysteries and the god-like capabilities of the Allspark and its shards but he found himself massively intrigued by the curious case before him. The thing that had held his curiosity and amazement the most was that the Allspark shard had actually managed to absorb a Human genome, and make it a part of its structure in such a way that it would effect any Cybertronian unfortunate enough to suffer from some radiation exposure from the corrupted artifact. That in itself made him wonder how it managed to alter the very inorganic body and turn it into a vessel of organic tissues and compounds.

Without Blitzwing even knowing, Knock Out activated his scanners within his optics, spying upon a pumping heart nestled within a ribcage and a plethora of other organs within. He had no idea of just how many squishy, unsavory tissues that Humans contained and it slightly curdled the energon flowing through his veins. This was the exact reason why he didn't like killing Humans; far too messy and not satisfactory. But the twisted medic figured he could make an exception in this case. He wanted to slice him open and try to find traces of his old body lying within the new shell he was confined to. However, he knew that as long as Megatron was in control, his macabre curiosity would need to be curbed.

"Hrmm... It's not often such oppertunity presents itself to test on some skin job. I've always wondered, really, how - exactly everything works..." He grinned, rubbing his pointed digits together as if the Con were fondling a palmful of coins or feeling some estranged chemical. A grin danced across his marble white faceplate, flashing the exceptional dental plates in his mouth. "It wouldn't hurt to explore would it? I'll ensure he doesn't feel it..."

"Now, Knock Out, I'm well aware of your preferences to dismantle than piece together but I need him intact," Megatron lightly scolded him.

"Jou touch me vith malice and I svear I vill make jou pay!" Blitzwing warned venomously.

"If you happen to perish while you are incarcerated in this state, I would greatly appreciate it you donated your body to science," said Knock Out.

Blitzwing crossed his arms and stared at him sourly. Just looking at his facial expression and how heavy his frown was, everyone could guess that Hothead was in control. Now that there were no more swapping faces, it would almost become a guessing game as to who was in control when he didn't speak.

"No harm will come to you, Blitzwing," Sumdac promised. "All we want to do is do a simple blood test and some other tiny procedures. I promise no one will be cutting you open."

Knock Out glowered at the Human professor, grinding his dental plates. He then smirked grimly and a panel in his wrist drew back, revealing a syringe.

"An eye for an eye, Knock Out," Megatron reminded him. "Even though he is Human for now, he still has worth especially if he can be turned back. If you kill my warrior, then I lose my medic."

"Understandable, sir," the red medic nodded. "I meant no harm anyway. It was all in the spirit of jest!" He then looked towards Blitzwing. "Hold out your arm."

"So jou can sever an artery and I vill bleed to death?" Icy said stiffly. "Nice try…"

Before he could go on anymore, Knock Out took advantage of the situation and jabbed him in the arm through the robe he still wore. Blitzwing yelped at this action but remained still, not wanting to break away and have the needle snap and remain lodged in him. At first, the pain was searing but it dulled away as the seconds dragged by. The odd organic man watched as he witnessed his newly acquired blood fill up the capsule, feeling a little weak as his lifeforce was drained from him. He looked Knock Out directly in his optics, seeing that they were staring, unblinking and fixed upon him. This made a chill run down Blitzwing's spine and he had a feeling he was studying him at a molecular level.

"Okay, thank you every much," Knock Out said, withdrawing the needle from his arm.

Blitzwing looked down at where the needle penetrated through Amanda's robe. Some blood began to pool and seep through the pink garment as the wound still remained opened.

The syringe retreated back into Knock Out's wrist so that he could scan the blood sample and check to see if there was anything unusual in it.

"You see," he began, "while you were sent back to Cynthia's home to stave out the rest of your quarantine, I did some research on Human physiology. I have to say I'm not an expert on it, nor do I want to be, but I know a bit about it to determine whether your blood differs from theirs. I can also give you a bit of a lowdown about what I do know already, just from scanning you."

"Jou scanned me?" Hothead raised a brow. Then he rolled his eyes, mumbling angrily to himself.

"Yes. It is also appropriate to share the information with everyone in the room while I am still processing your blood sample. So far, I could tell that you that your bone structure seems to differ from that of the typical Human. Your structure seems sturdier, stronger and seems to be threaded with inorganic elements; namely, the compounds that compose of our bodies. Your internal organs seem to have the same structure and look as the Humans do too. Just like in your bones, there seem to be remnants of your older self in those organs that promote optimal longevity and endurance in your systems. Such elements you have in you are not found in Humans…"

"So, he's a different kind of Human in other words?" Sumdac inquired, shocked by this knowledge. "He's a different species of our kind?"

"Dead on. In fact, an advanced and superior Human, one that will have a longer life span, greater stamina and strength than the common native species. His immune system is more powerful and resistant to the strains and diseases found on this world because of the trace elements that comprise of our bodies. His central nervous system also allows him to be more intellectually powerful and keen as well." Knock Out scowled. "This may be bad news for Cyndi because you're also more potent than the average Human male."

An eerily massive grin appeared on his face, hinting that Random had taken control. He giggled airily at Knock Out's information.

"Oh, she vill be in for a surprise zhen…" he said, believing that he was going to get laid every single night now.

"Keep that to yourself and only to yourself, Blitzwing," Megatron said with disgust in his voice.

His devious expression shattered like fine, antique china and his smile turned upside down in no time.

"Sorry, sir…" he said.

"Knock Out, how long do you estimate it will take to find an antidote?" Megatron turned his attention to the 'Con medic.

"Could take a few solar cycles or more," Knock Out said, practically shrugging. "I can't say for sure. Only time will tell. I'll see if I can extract any antibodies from his blood sample and then use that as a crucial part of the antidote. All the advice I have for Blitzwing regarding this predicament is to not get killed and to be patient. He is far more vulnerable than he has ever been and he must not blow his cover…or his enemies will take advantage of his horrible luck."

"I understand," Blitzwing said, nodding his head briefly. "I know full vell vhat may lie ahead of me. I vill be as patient as possible and try to make zis whole experience as pleasant as possible to maintain my sanity…"

"As in vhat little, if any sanity I have left!" Random finished Icy's statement.

"And since this has happened," said Megatron, "you are not welcome here until we've found the cure or until the virus has run its course and dissipated entirely from you."

"I understand jour reasoning, sir," the level headed voice rang out. "I understand zat my presence vould only hinder your efforts and…"

Before he could complete his sentence, Megatron knelt down and snatched him up into his massive servo. He then brought his metamorphosed minion up to his faceplate, contorting his optics into a stern and serious sneer. Methodically, he tightened his grip on the seemingly ordinary Human man and gazed into his eyes.

"Blitzwing, do not ruin this," he warned. "I still have plans for you when you regain your body. Therefore, I recommend you to not engage in any foolish, frivolous, wayward, activities of any sort that will endanger your life or threaten to blow your cover and reveal your true nature."

Being held in the hand of a much larger and much more powerful being began to frighten Blitzwing immensely. The circumstances began to remind him of when he had the young MECH guard, Jimmy, in his servos and had crushed him to death. With the way Megatron was applying pressure around him, he started to understand the terror that Jimmy must've felt before his skeleton had been shattered like brittle, archaic pottery shards. In his whole life, never did he stop and think that he would be the one being crushed in another's servo. At times he delighted in how irony worked but in this situation, he absolutely abhorred it.

"I-I-I vill not endanger m-myself!" Blitzwing gasped, feeling like a hamster whose eyeballs were bulging out of their sockets from being squeezed too hard. "I do not vish to go offline anyvay, my lord!"

"And do not allow yourself to fall victim to any strong urges…" Megatron resumed. "I know you love the organic femme but now that you have become a close mimic of one, I fear your judgement will be clouded. I will warn you once and only once, Blitzwing. If there are any disastrous consequences that come about from your carnal escapades that prove detrimental to either myself or my cause, I promise you that you will pay with your life."

Because his fear was already clouding his thinking, Blitzwing wasn't entirely sure what Megatron meant when he said this. But what he did know was that he ought to act on his best behavior.

"I svear, I von't cause any trouble!" he vowed. "I vill tell no one about vhat I really am and I vill blend in vith ze Humans as best as I can!"

"Yes, that is what somewhat concerns me," Megatron noted.

"Just, please…" Sumdac spoke up to try to elaborate to Blitzwing. "Use moderation with your new body."

"Lover boy…" Knock Out added a further hint.

"I understand!" Hothead exclaimed. "I von't do anyzhing!"

With his stare still hard and grim, Megatron lowered his servo to the ground and released Blitzwing from his hold. He fell to his knees, inhaling and exhaling deeply to collect himself and get some air into his lungs.

"I think it would be a smart move if he had remained with Cynthia and her siblings once again," Sumdac advised. "They had done a good job with hiding him while shrunken. This should be easier for them to do now that he's Human."

"I agree," said the Decepticon lord. "What better way to teach him how to act as one of them until a cure can be found?"

(…)

Darien believed some demonic force was out to ruin his existence as soon as he laid eyes upon Megatron when the silver giant reentered the room with Knock Out, Professor Sumdac and Blitzwing. For when he had done that exact action, he felt his cellphone shift in his pocket. A mere second after it began to vibrate, it began to ring. When that happened, all eyes, organic and inorganic, fell upon him.

"_Put me to sleep, evil angel! Open your wings, evil angel! Fly over me, evil angel! Why can't I breathe, evil angel?_"

Amanda stifled a spray of laughter upon hearing the song that was her brother's ringtone. Meanwhile, he froze up on the other hand, wondering if it was a smart idea to answer it while in the same room as Megatron.

As soon as he saw the fear etched on Darien's face and heard the cell phone ring, Megatron saw yet another opportunity to test his young servant. Out of the three siblings, he knew that Darien was the quietest and the most nonconfrontational. Although Darien had slain Silas in defending the lives of his sisters, particularly Amanda, Megatron still sought to pick on him to toughen his hide and single him out from his older sisters.

"Darien, aren't you going to answer that?" he asked. "That's quite rude to let it ring like that when you are so close to it." Unbeknownst to Darien, he was poised to listen in on the conversation as soon as the phone was answered and monitor every single thing Darien and the caller said.

The brown haired youth flinched when his overlord spoke. But seconds later, he fumbled around for his phone inside his pocket. Without even bothering to look at the caller I.D., he answered.

"H-hello?" he said heavily into the mouthpiece.

"_Darien, my little boy, where are you and your sisters at?_" Helen Preston, his mother was the one seeking to contact him. "_There's no one at your apartment and it looks like a pig sty in here!_"

It felt as if he was slugged in his stomach when she said that. His jaw dropped and he was at a complete loss for words. Darien face-palmed himself with his available hand and whined softly.

"Mom…" he said after nearly fifteen seconds of silence. "Are you at the apartment?! What are you doing there?!"

"_Of course I am!_" she said cheerfully. "_You know how your father and I like to show up unannounced to our children's home so we can surprise you three!_"

"Okay but what are you doing there?"

"_My God, why are there dirty dishes and empty bags of potato chips and junk food on your eldest sister's floor? And what is that smell?_" He could hear Helen sniffing on the other end. "_Cynthia's usually neat and organized… Anyway, why are we here? Do you remember when I called Cynthia a few weeks earlier to tell her about the family vacation we had planned this year? Your father got the court case settled a bit earlier than expected and we decided to gather you three up and head down to South Carolina right now. But my babies aren't here!_"

He forgot about the trip plans completely. Cursing under his breath, he started to bite a nail silently.

"Cyndi, Mandy and I decided to go on a hike in the woods just to get out of the city," he lied. "You know, we felt like getting out of Detroit and avoiding all the Rock'em Sock'em Robot battles…"

"_Well, coming home so we can have a nice, long drive down to Daufuskie Island is even nicer. And what do you know, I finally remembered the name of that place!_ _Okay, tell your sisters to light a fire under it and hustle back here so we can begin our drive! Your father's becoming impatient and he wants to get a start on the road before it gets too late in the day._"

"Alright…I-I'll see you soon, Mom. We'll be there before you know it!" The smile he wore on his face was forced and strained.

"_I love you, honey! I will see you soon!_"

He allowed his mother to disconnect the call first before he did. When he heard Helen hang up, Darien's posture slouched and he almost threw the phone to the ground in sorrow and frustration.

"We're screwed!" he told his sisters. "Mom and Dad showed up at our place and they want us to go to South Carolina with them! We don't have our stuff packed, Blitzwing's stuck as a Human and we have to take care of him and we're in this mine! How are we going to get out of this one?!"

"Oh, chill we've been in worse," Amanda rolled her eyes.

Although Darien was obviously panicked and a bit unsure of how to handle the situation, Megatron was just pleased that the boy didn't try to betray him in one way or another in the call. So, he decided to reward him for that. Not only that, his three agents needed to maintain the guise that they were regular citizens of the global population.

"Then you must make haste and answer the call of your mother," he instructed. "For the time being, I had no assignments for you three anyway other than keeping Blitzwing from killing himself in one way or another. I grant you permission to join your parents and go forth on your trivial retreat."

Practically everyone present was somewhat shocked by Megatron's permission. However, they then realized how shrewd he was in allowing them to go with their parents; an embarrassingly weak Blitzwing would not be his responsibility and much rather Cynthia's. Not only that, by letting them join Helen and Robert, this proved to them that their children were not up to anything unusual, especially being forced spies for Megatron.

"Thank you," Cyndi expressed her gratitude to her master. Deep inside, she still hated him and wanted him dead for his wickedness. "We'll act as if everything is going along normally so our parents won't start thinking suspiciously about us."

"Lockdown, I would still like you to watch over them and that includes following them around on this journey," Megatron ordered the black and green bounty hunter. "You are responsible for protecting and accommodating them now especially because of Blitzwing's condition."

Lockdown was not so much bothered by his orders to safeguard the Humans anymore. He found them amusing and almost welcoming since it nearly always provided entertainment for him one way or another. Feelings of friendship began to form in his spark for them and he honestly didn't mind being with them. The mismatched Cybertronian especially didn't mind being the guardian of Amanda. Out of the three, she was his favorite where she was once the least desirable in his optics.

"It's not a problem at all," he said. He was even indifferent about getting some sort of repayment or upgrade for his services. Yet he could never admit it to anyone out loud that his spark had gone somewhat soft and lenient on his organic charges. "It'll be nice to have a change of scenery too by going on this trip." Lockdown transformed into his vehicle mode and his doors swung open, beckoning his passengers to climb in and get a move on it. "Time's wastin', let's go."

Darien and Amanda moved first, making their way to the front seats. Blitzwing stayed close to Cynthia's side with a gentlemanly air as he held her hand. He refused to budge or leave her side unless she began to move.

Once she approached Lockdown to claim her spot in the backseat, she glanced back at the other Decepticons that would be remaining behind. She found Starscream staring back at her expectantly having wanting her to fulfill the promises he made her swear to him. Earlier, she had known and seen the contempt and bitterness they borne to one another despite their happy and brotherly past. They had attempted to kill one another and they were poised to betray the other if it proved beneficial. Now it seemed that Starscream actually expressed concern and care for his forsaken kin, as impossible as it once seemed. She didn't know what suddenly prompted the proud and sly seeker to defrost his icy spark towards Blitzwing but she had a feeling that something powerful and moving had to have happened to make it a reality.

A part of her wanted to believe it was all a ploy or a trap of some sort set by Starscream. However something else within her insisted that perhaps Starscream did still love him. That thought alone made her smile at him as she climbed into her seat.


	50. Adult Supervision

**Hey-ya guys, thanks a ton for the reviews/alerts/faves as always! As for the new chapter itself, I don't really have much to say. If anything, I had fun writing it and hopefully you guys will get a laugh out of it or enjoy reading it as much as I created it. So, enjoy the update and drop a review if it strikes you fancy~**

Chapter 50 Parental Supervision

(…)

"Okay, we need to have a game plan, like, now…" Amanda said, turning behind in her seat to face her sister and Blitzwing. "Mom and Dad will totally be in on us if we don't come up with some good excuses and explanations."

"She's right," Cyndi admitted. Her gaze fell upon the man sitting next to her. "You need an alias of some sort to go with for as long as you're with my parents."

Blitzwing had a feeling this wasn't going to go very well. He had never met Helen and Robert Preston but he heard all about them from their children. To a certain extent, he hoped he would never meet them considering he knew what their reactions would be if they had found out he loved their eldest child.

From what he heard about Helen, she was a kind, somewhat ditsy and cheerful woman. The more he heard about her, the more Random wanted to meet her one day since he felt as if they were somewhat kindred souls, personality wise (minus the evil tendencies and warped humor that abound in Blitzwing). Icy had wondered if he would be able to tolerate her. Hothead had already decided that he would undoubtedly be annoyed by her but he would try his hardest to not end up punching her lights out just because she was Cynthia's mother.

As for Robert, he had heard mixed things from all three of the siblings. The most negative and disheartening review of the man was by Darien. In fact, Blitzwing wanted to know how Robert and Helen even became high school sweethearts and married a few years after graduation for that matter. In contrast to the Preston matriarch, Robert was stern and unwavering with his convictions and beliefs, oftentimes serious and very expectant, especially towards his three children. Despite the overbearing and domineering description given to him by Darien, Cynthia and Amanda also added some redeeming qualities to their father's persona. He treasured his family above all things. He was very reliant, proactive with the welfare and future of his children and always attempted to make himself available to them despite his occassionaly hectic schedule as Greenvale's sole practicing lawyer.

"Yeah and I have to tell Dad again that I still don't have a job," Darien sighed loudly, just dreading the criticism his father would have in store for him.

"Darien, if you just took Mandy's offer and put in an application at her work as a stock boy, you wouldn't be worried," Cynthia scolded him.

"I don't want to deal with her friends at that grocery store! They talk constantly about the stupidest things and oogle over every single boy that comes up to their register!"

"Oh come on, Janine thinks you're adorable," Mandy rolled her eyes. "I know she would love to have you work with us." Then she snickered. "I forgot you still have the hots for that girl who shot you down…"

"Shut up, Mandy!" The seventeen year old was becoming incensed and jealous with his sister's teasing. "I found it hilarious that Cyndi can pick up some random, alien robot and I can't get a girl of my own species to not step all over my feelings and heart!"

She reached for him and tickled him under his chin. Darien growled in annoyance and swatted her hand away, glowering at her.

"You look so adorable when you're angry," the blonde teased.

"Jour pitiful problems can vait for now because I have one zat's much bigger!" Hothead said, raising his voice.

Angrily, Darien folded his arms and stared down at his feet, deciding to not include himself with anything else for the timebeing. When Amanda had mentioned the incident with Tristan denying him, his mood was utterly ruined for the rest of the day.

"Okay, Diva Bot, let's talk about you," Amanda taunted.

"I need a name," said Icy. "I need an identity and perhaps a life story of some sort too so I can convince jour parents zat I'm just an ordinary Human…"

"Well, it's pretty much going to be impossible to do with your different voices…but I guess we're better off this way than with you as a robot. My dad would go insane if he saw you with us."

"Seriously, Mandy, let's focus on this," Cynthia said impatiently.

"Would you all like to lower the noise level?" Lockdown spoke suddenly. "I cannot even hear myself think at the moment!"

"I agree," Darien sourly added.

Blitzwing crossed his arms, suddenly remembering that they were a lot softer than usual. He sighed heavily, realizing it would take awhile to get used to this odd situation that he was in.

"First things first," Cyndi started, "you have an accent. It sounds German so we can say that you're a German immigrant who came here to start a life in Detroit." She held his hand and smiled at him. "Then we can say we met and we fell in love."

Judging by the large, dopy smile that graced his face, she guessed that Random was the dominant personality now. Not caring that he was riding inside Lockdown's vehicle mode and rather disregarding the other Humans within, he lifted her off the seat and placed Cynthia in his lap. He chuckled playfully and continued to hold her hands in his.

"I like vhat ve have so far vith zis," he nodded. "But I just hope jour parents don't mind me ravishing zheir daughter…"

"Not in my vehicle mode!" Lockdown warned.

He stopped rather quickly and harshly at a stop sign, making his tires screech. Since he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, Blitzwing slammed right into the back of the front passenger seat where Darien was sitting. Cyndi yelped in shock and confusion as she was pressed between the seat and her love. Smirking and chuckling mischievously, Lockdown continued to drive again.

Blitzwing snarled angrily at the action and leaned back in his seat, bringing Cynthia with him as well. Quickly, he looked her over to see if she was possibly injured from the sudden stop.

"Are jou alright, Cyndi?" he asked with concern in a slightly panicked voice.

"I'm okay, don't worry," she said, rubbing her lower back.

"Jou're lucky zat she's not hurt!" Hothead vented.

"Yeah, I understand that you're in love and all but it's not happening in my vehicle mode," Lockdown said in disgust.

"Trust me, zis is one of ze last places I vould choose…"

"I'd watch my mouth if I were you, Human." He placed especial emphasis on the very last word.

"Not for long, I can promise jou zat." He was reminded of something suddenly. "Vhat am I going to do about zis pink monstrosity zat I'm vearing?"

"There's not a thing we can do now," said Amanda. "We can't keep my dad waiting. My mom's one thing but my dad isn't as forgiving. The sooner we get back to the apartment, quickly pack and then go, the better. You'll have to make up a lie along the way…"

(…)

While Robert Preston sat on the couch, tapping his foot on the floor, his wife was as busy as a bee, cleaning up the apartment and also started packing for her children. With a keen gaze, he studied his surroundings, having a feeling that something was truly amiss. There was a strange, industrial smell in the air but he couldn't locate the source of the odor. It vaguely reminded him his own or any other man's body odor but with that odd twist that he couldn't put his finger on. In fact, it was almost becoming maddening that he couldn't find its origin.

He walked into the kitchen, being wary of not stepping on a piece of shattered glass from the cup Helen might've missed when she cleaned it up earlier. Mr. Preston opened the cupboard doors beneath the sink and pulled out some air freshener. Normally he hated the smell of lilac since it gave him a headache sometimes but putting up with this mystery body odor-like smell was becoming unbearable. Helen merely shrugged it off on the other hand and it didn't bother her as much which came as a surprise to him.

"Helen, I just don't get how this doesn't bother you," he said as he began to spray the aerosol. After spraying the kitchen and living room ruthlessly for a full minute, he walked down the small hallway to where his children's bedrooms were located. "It smells the worst in Cynthia's room too!"

Helen had no quarrel with rummaging through her adult daughter's drawers, even picking out underwear. She grabbed about a week's worth of underwear and gently placed it in Cynthia's suitcase. After getting what she needed from that drawer, she went into the closet and sifted through the wardrobe to find some outfits suitable enough for the hot and humid South Carolinian climate. Because Helen was so focused with her task, she didn't even hear her husband speak earlier.

However, she was alerted to his presence when he entered Cynthia's room and began to spray the air freshener. She turned around and smirked.

"Oh, you're helping me red up, Robert?" she asked. "I'm sure our children will be relieved to come back to a nice, clean apartment!"

"Honey, did you hear what I said earlier?" the lawyer pressed. He shook the can when it began to run out. "How can that foul odor not get to you?"

"Kids smell like that. Especially teenage boys."

"If that was the case then why doesn't our son's room smell like a horrible pig sty? It smells the worst in our eldest child's room! I was appalled by the condition of her room when I walked in here earlier too. I may just have to have a talk with her about this. She was always the neatest one we had too!" He huffed in an irritated tone. "Marvelous, I think I just ran out of freshener too…"

"Don't worry about it." Helen walked up to her husband of twenty four years and kissed him on his chin. "We'll just crack the windows in here a little so that scent can get sucked out and replaced with some fresh air. By the time we make it back here, the apartment will smell like cleanliness. You're on vacation so stop being so grumpy and…high strung."

Robert hugged his wife. He smiled warmly as he did so and ran his fingers through her hair.

"Alright, babe," he said, kissing her briefly on her lips. "I'll take a chill pill. You're right. I'm not taking a single call until this vacation ends."

"If you do, I'll rip that phone right out of your hands and throw it into the sea," Helen smiled.

Robert reluctantly then released his wife from his arms when he heard the front door open, signaling the arrival of his daughters and son. Collecting himself and reminding himself to not be so invasive and questioning about them and their living conditions, he exited Cynthia's room. Helen followed him close behind, eager to see her progeny that she had not seen since early January.

"I was wondering if you three got caught up in a robot battle again," Robert joked, wearing a small smile.

His happy grin then shattered when he saw someone standing alongside his children. There was a complete stranger with them and he felt a flare of fatherly overprotectiveness swell up in him. He leered at the man in the pink robe, trying to figure out just who he was. Although Robert was a tall man himself, he felt slightly intimidated by the stranger since he was even taller than he was. As far as he could tell, the man didn't seem to look aggressive (Amanda's robe on him certainly didn't help create a tough image for him) but the Preston patriarch resolved to assert his dominance and protect his family if it called for it.

"I see you've brought a friend with you too," he resumed, wearing a skeptical and stern look on his face.

As soon as Helen's eyes fell upon the large figure of the stranger, she was instantly ensnared. To call her a cougar was somewhat unfair because she was faithful and never betrayed her husband. However, despite the fact she was forty seven, she still viewed herself as a young woman. Because of that, she found herself often openly commenting on handsome young men, regardless of whose presence she was in.

"Someone has to tell me exactly who that Adonis is!" Helen exclaimed, approaching her kids and the stranger.

Robert slapped the palm of his hand against his forehead and sighed in exhaustion. Their children also were less than pleased with her reaction as well with Darien rolling his eyes, Amanda looking at the floor in embarrassment and Cynthia blushing furiously.

"Uh, Mom…" Cyndi started, clearing her throat. She glanced over at her father nervously and waved at him. "And Dad…I know this a huge surprise but this is my boyfriend!"

"Your 'boyfriend'?" Robert repeated, setting a hand on his hip.

"Yeah, my boyfriend! Surprise! I wanted to surprise you with him!"

"Well you certainly did… I'm not too pleased with it actually, how long has this been going on for?"

"Ve've been togezher since January, Mr. Preston," Blitzwing answered, deciding to help Cynthia explain it all to her father.

"Cyndi-Baby, you got a boyfriend!" Helen clasped her hands together and squealed in joy. "You've picked such a handsome one too!" She eyed him from head to toe. "And he has an accent too…"

"Oh, zhank jou, Cyndi's mom!" Random gushed, flattered and pleased that she had complimented on him.

"You're very welcome, honey! And please, don't be a stranger; call me Helen! What's your name? Don't be shy, do introduce yourself to my husband and I!"

He froze up for a minute, remembering he never did pick out a name for himself while Lockdown was transporting them. He wracked his newly bestowed fleshy brain for an alias of some sort that would sound convincing and keep the charade going until at least he was no longer in Helen and Robert's presence. Blowing his cover and possibly betraying the fact that he wasn't a mere Human was just not an option for him. Not only that, he didn't want Cyndi to endure Robert's skepticism and curiosity all alone.

"My name is Johann," he said. "Johann…" He quickly came up with a last name derived from his own designation. "Blitzen." Blitzwing smiled confidently to reinforce that this pseudonym was his true identity.

"German," Robert noted. "The accent and that name are a dead giveaway. You immigrated here recently?"

"Yes, about a year ago. I arrived here to start a new life to say ze least. A bit later, I met jour daughter and fell in love vith her…"

Cyndi felt his hand lovingly grasp hers. Feeling a surge of affection and happiness fill her, she leaned into him. When she did this, he encircled his arms around her, holding her to him and kissing the top of her head.

"Do you wear robes in Germany casually?" Robert asked with biting sarcasm.

Everyone was caught off by the blatant and the clearly not amused tone in his voice. But before Helen could open her mouth to scold her husband for being so vicious, the lawyer laughed out loud. In good nature and jest, he patted Blitzwing's shoulder.

"I'm only joking, I'm sure you have a good story for wearing that," he said.

"Uh, yes…" Icy hesitated, caught off guard by what just happened. "It's an embarrassing story actually, sir."

"Call me Robert, Johann. Well, I have to admit you scared me there for a moment but as far as I can tell, you seem to be a decent young man."

"Johann, do you have any plans?" Helen pressed. "I suggest that you join us! I'm sure Cynthia told you that we're all heading down to South Carolina a.s.a.p! In fact, I insist that you join us!" She gasped. "Which reminds me!" She grasped her second and third child's arms and pulled them to her. "Amanda Anne and Darien George, I got started on packing your things and we need to finish the rest of it now!"

Wasting no time and preferring to let their sister and Blitzwing deal with their parents, Amanda and Darien did exactly as their mother instructed. They rushed into their respective rooms and set out to finish what their mother started (and remove any clothes that she had placed in their bags they were no longer fond of wearing).

"I suppose I don't have any plans," Johann resumed. "Zat is, if it is alright vith jou Mr. and Mrs. Preston?"

"As I've said earlier, this is unexpected but if my wife insists that you join us, then I suppose I will let you hop aboard," Robert smiled. With the way he was acting, Blitzwing wasn't entirely sure about the negative side to him that the siblings spoke of. "We have just enough room in the car anyway. It'll be interesting getting to know you. Besides that Wes Larkson boy who dated Cynthia for a week in middle school, you're the first, real, lucky man she snagged."

"And might I say I am honored and I feel blessed to have a femme such as Cyndi. Zhings have been going along razher vell so far, Mr. Preston."

"I can tell…" Robert gazed upon the couple who were holding each other. Their closeness reminded him a lot of himself and Helen when they were younger. Comparing those youthful and passion-filled memories with what he saw before him made him soften a little on the inside, especially with realizing his eldest had blossomed into a responsible young woman. "Oh boy can I tell…"

Although Robert could clearly tell that the two were in love with each other, he couldn't forbid his fatherly and overprotective instincts to kick on. What bothered him the most was that Cynthia had never told him or Helen about this immigrant that she apparently began to date in January. Normally, she'd tell her parents about something as significant as dating and seeing someone but he came quite literally out of nowhere. The fellow also intrigued him because as far as he could tell, Johann spoke in two different tones. He didn't want to bring it up for the timebeing and preferred to wait and see what would unfold further.

"Do you need us to head back to your home so you can pack up?" Helen asked her daughter's unassuming boyfriend.

"Oh-ho, zhere's no need for zat!" Random replaced Icy, making him sound and look even more peculiar to Robert. "I lost all of my clozhes!"

"Vhen I had a fire in my room!" Hothead spoke up to come up with an answer of some sort. "Zhey all burst into flames and I had to vear Mandy's robe for now!"

"I'm very sorry to hear about that!" Mrs. Preston frowned. "But we'll cure that little problem in no time at all! I'm sure we can buy some new clothes for you on the way down to Daufuskie Island or possibly down there itself!"

"Yes…vearing zis zhing is humiliating and gross."

Robert only raised a brow and made note…

(…)

Yet another surprise awaited Mr. and Mrs. Preston when they finished walking down the concrete stairwell. Parked about a hundred feet away, next to their car, was the most unusual looking muscle car they had ever seen in their lives. Robert's curiosity was piqued as soon as he saw it because once upon a time, when he was teenager, he would've easily thrown all his money down the drain to own a car such as this (he was quite the metalhead when he was in high school after all). He eyed the green and black, spike studded car, just imagining who owned such an automobile.

"One of your neighbors owns this…thing?" Robert asked none of his children in particular.

"Actually, I do," Mandy said shyly.

"Nuh-uh," Helen shook her head, disbelieving her youngest daughter's claims. "What happened to the pink Volkswagen you wanted?"

"I have no money…and this was the only thing I found at a repo station that I could afford."

"Some drug dealer or rock star owned this thing before you?" Robert asked with a stuffy tone, preferring not to let onto his rebellious younger years especially in Johann's presence.

"I have no idea. What I do know is that it works well and hasn't broken down. That's all I really care about now."

Robert studied the vehicle for a few good solid seconds before turning his back on it to help load his children's bags into the backseat of his car with Helen following him shortly afterwards. Behind her parents' backs, Amanda approached Lockdown. She opened up the driver's door and sat in the seat. The blonde sighed unhappily, still not feeling keen on talking to him due to last night's heartbreak but she wanted to know if he had established some sort of gameplan with following them and safeguarding them and Blitzwing.

"You still gonna follow Starscream's orders and watch over us?" she asked, placing her hand on the steering wheel and staring at it sullenly.

"Guess so," he retorted in a soft tone so her parents wouldn't hear him speak to her. "Megatron wants me to do it so I might as well do so. Starscream also seemed really adamant about me doing the job right too which is really…weird. Last time I checked, he and Blitzwing hated each other's circuitry. This time, it seemed like he wanted Cynthia and I to watch out for him at all costs as if his spark meant something to him."

Cynthia had disclosed to her that Blitzwing and Starscream were in actuality half brothers. He urged her to not really tell anyone about this tidbit of info since Blitzwing himself preferred to keep it under wraps for the sake of peace within the Decepticon ranks on Earth. Amanda planned on keeping the secret buried mainly because she knew it was what her sister would've wanted. Not only that, she still felt sour and bitter towards Lockdown's rejection of her.

"I don't know why that weird winged robot would act that way either," she lied. "Whatever; that's all I can say to that. I don't even like Starscream. Alright, I just wanted to see what was going on with your plans. I guess I'll catch glimpses of you here and there or maybe not even at all."

"No news or sight at all is preferred," the bounty hunter emulated. "The less your parents know, the better. I will be closer than you think, trust me."

"I know…"

She reached for the door handle so she could step out and rejoin her family but she heard the loud click of the locks, indicating he trapped her within. For a few seconds she paused, wondering what just happened before it registered in her head. Sighing in aggravation, she pushed against the door.

"Let me out, now!" she commanded in a serious voice.

"Not just yet," Lockdown interjected. "They're still loading everything anyway. I want to chat for a few more cycles, alright?"

"What could you possibly want to talk about with me?" Amanda became increasingly incensed with each second that passed by. "I need to go on a much needed vacation!"

"Something crossed my processor whenever you went to go inside last night…" He didn't know how to present the topic to her exactly but he didn't want to delay in discussing it. "You know, when you made me drive you home one day when you were out with your friends?"

Wrinkling her nose, she recalled on that memory. She settled back in the seat and sat in silence for a few moments, contemplating on it. Amanda was becoming perplexed as to why he was bringing up this matter.

"Why do you care or even want to bother to talk about it?" she replied bitingly at him.

"I remember you mentioning something about a Gypsy lady who read your fortune a few months earlier. You never did reveal much about it whenever I drove you back."

"Again, why do you care?! You were never in it! She told me I was going to be a mother because she saw me holding a baby in my arms…"

Without saying anymore and swearing that she could feel tears in her eyes, she managed to open the door, not even hearing that he unlocked it before she could start kicking it. Forcing herself to calm down and not lead her family on to believe she was mad at her car, Amanda exited and tried her hardest to not slam the door behind her. She walked over to her clan to rejoin them even putting on a fake smile to convince them all was well.

"Sorry everyone, I just wanted to check to make sure I got everything out of…that car," she said, unveiling a bitter and disappointed tone in her voice. "I checked it and I left nothing of value in there. I don't want to drive it for a week since that thing makes me feel so self conscious sometimes…"

"Well, you didn't have to buy it, dear," Helen butted in. "If you had found that adorable, little Volkswagen you wanted, all you'd have to do is contact your father and I and we'd help you buy it."

"Trust me, when we get back, I'll see about selling it and start looking for the car I really want. Anymore it's just becoming an eyesore." A large and forebodingly dark grin then formed on her face. "Actually, I do have a car in mind but it's not a pink Volkswagen. Just earlier today, I swear I saw the most beautiful car in my life. It was this deep crimson, gorgeous, fast, European sports car. A real knockout actually…"

Blitzwing immediately suspected something was amiss between the duo whom he last thought were on relatively amicable terms. Questioningly, he glanced over at the masquerading bounty hunter, wondering just what was afoot. He heard no squabble between them but he figured something went on while he was ill last night or the night before when he was busy indulging in Cynthia. The behavior she exhibited was odd, especially the way she spoke of him. As far as he had seen and heard, Mandy was almost always by Lockdown's side, oftentimes choosing his sole company over himself and Cynthia (which didn't surprise him that much).

"_Ooh-hoo, somezhing happened!_" Random pointed out within his head. "_I zhink Mandy's mad at her green and black knight!_" He cackled internally when he came to another realization. "_And I zhink she has ze hots for Knock Out!_"

On the exterior, he rolled his eyes. Icy remained dominant for the moment, determined to try to make things go about as normally as possible which included tuning out distracting thoughts his other two personalities voiced within his head.

"Sounds pricy," Robert huffed at his daughter's desires, "we'll talk more about that when our vacation ends. Now come on, everyone! Daylight's wasting!"

Upon realizing that the morning truly was dying off and giving rise to the afternoon, everyone herded into the family vehicle. In the back seat, it was a tight squeeze, particularly for Blitzwing who was compressed between Cynthia and the rear left passenger door. However, he didn't seem to mind this when he slouched in his seat and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her to him and allowing her to lean against him. Amanda and Darien looked away from his tenderness, half expecting a replay of what happened earlier when Lockdown was driving them back to the apartment. Despite his love and desire for her, he resolved to behave himself so he wouldn't end up making things even more awkward.

"So, how long is this trip going to be?" Darien interrogated his parents.

"Well, we have to drive southeast, first and foremost," Robert said, igniting the engine. "With rest stops we'll need to halt for bathroom and food breaks, it'll probably take us about fifteen hours or more. I think it's best we just drive the whole time too. I don't really want to stop at a hotel if we can just get there quicker by staving through it."

The boy's jaw dropped. Amanda was equally astonished and disheartened by the length of time it would take.

"Fifteen hours?!" the two exclaimed in unison.

Mandy glanced over at Blitzwing who was thankfully separated from her by her sister. By merely seeing the gleeful and carefree grin on his face, she could tell Random was in control now. He chuckled puckishly and waved at her. The girl quickly looked away and sighed heavily, cradling her head in her hands.

"Ve vill have so much fun zhough!" he said, trying to bolster their spirits. "Ve can play games and sing songs to pass ze time! Come on, ve vill be zhere before ve know it!"

"Exactly!" Helen nodded and turned around to face him. "I just feel so lucky that you're the sole ray of sunshine in this car right now, Johann. What game do you think we should play first? I Spy?"

"A screaming contest!" He braced his lungs.

Ignoring the ungodly, piercing shriek that rattled his eardrums, Robert put the vehicle into drive and at last set off on the journey…

(...)

Upon judging that the family was far enough where he could keep an eye on them and tail them without them detecting him, Lockdown at last showed signs of life. His engine rumbled to life to imitate a seemingly nonsentient car's start up. He scanned his surroundings, finding no nosy or prying neighbors who might've been quietly monitoring everything. The bounty hunter then drove off, following them from a distance as nonchalantly and unassumingly as possible.

As he drove, his processor began to wander and it began to dwell on the biting comments Amanda stated earlier to her parents about him as her mode of transportation. Although what she told her parents about Knock Out was obviously veiled unbeknownst to them, it was very clear to him. She didn't care what about his warnings regarding the red medic earlier. When the vacation would be over, she'd seek to discard her guardian and substitute him for a more attractive mech. No doubt, this was her plan for revenge for him rebuking her love.

"_I clearly and adamantly warned her about him,_" he reasoned to himself. "_I told her to not even absentmindedly signal her attraction to him because he would exploit it and break her heart…even more so than I did. I shouldn't give a frag and I should let her be naïve and stupid because I gave her fair warning. She'll screw up her own life on her own judgment and terms and I would just merely say 'told ya so, Blondie'._"

Lockdown was surprising himself with how much thought he was devoting to this issue. He searched deep within his spark and spotted no love for her so it was irrational for him to be feeling this way. But he did view her as she was; a vulnerable, young, inexperienced and brash friend. He pitied her that she was pressed into Megatron's service simply because she was Cynthia's sister and best friend who knew too much. In the beginning he could barely tolerate her but now he looked forward to chatting with her and being her companion.

True, he was a bounty hunter with no faction or sturdy alliance to both Autobots and Decepticons. Yet he was also a protector to a measely and shallow young Human femme. He had accepted that reality.

Lockdown sped up, now suddenly feeling that the distance between him and the family was too great. His steely spark rehardened and he pushed any conflicts and insecurities out of his helm.

"_If you want that pretty bot, kid, you gotta go through me._" He almost wished he could telepathically commune with her so he could tell her those words. "_You're not gonna brush me off just like that. You're stuck with me._"


	51. Hearts Lain Out

**My darlings, thank you for the alerts/faves/reviews! All you guys are motivating me to get writing and get this story done! So about this chapter... I'm featuring an OC that belongs to one of my good friends, **Fruity Sangheili. **She RPs as this OC on Tumblr and I liked the character so much that I wanted to give her own little part in the story, specifically, shedding some light on Pulsar's background. There's also gonna be a fair amount of romance stuff in here and a new pairing will be featured in this story. I know this may seem a little bit of like a filler chapter but I thought it'd be necessary at the same time. **

**I also want to give **Esuerc **a great big thank you once again for completely surprising me with some sweet fan art she made for the story! Thank you so much! *TEARS OF AWESOME* For those of you interested in checking out the pic she made, I have a link for it on my profile and it'll be grouped with the others in the link/art section I have. **

**So, no more notes and whatnot pl****ease enjoy the read!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Jakknife. **Fruity Sangheili **does.**

Chapter 51 Hearts Lain Out

(twenty miles outside of Detroit – woodlands, 11:10am)

The Romanian woman smiled softly as she gazed upon the gold wedding band around her finger. With great tenderness, she twirled it around her finger, studying its surface. It was still in immaculate and pristine condition as when she first received it from her husband nearly a decade ago. For as long as she stared at the ring, she reflected on the memory of her deceased significant other. Although she was wrapped up in the happy memories of her and her beloved Aaron Cooley, Marishka was not ignorant and oblivious to the orange Autobot femme sitting next to her.

"Pulsar, tell me what you're thinking about, dear," she said, not taking her eyes off her ring.

The stubborn and callous Cybertronian huffed softly and had no desire to look Marishka in the eye. Like the diviner, she too was lost in her inner most recollections and reflections. Her processor was still dwelling upon the young man whose heart she had broke a little over a month earlier. It was beginning to disgust her with how much she was obsessing with playing the whole incident over and over again in her helm. Pulsar concluded that the only reason why this was the case was because she never had a male of both Cybertronian and Human origins confess their feelings to her. Truthfully, it came as a shock to her and she often questioned herself as to why Darien Preston would fall for her, in particular, the holoform she frequented… She had not treated him too kindly when they had attended school and yet he still sought to try to befriend her and get her to open up her rugged façade. Somewhere along the way, he somehow fell for her. The thing she pitied about his situation the most was that what he had fell for was a lie. He had no idea of who or exactly what she was. If he had discovered the truth about her, Pulsar was certain he'd forfeit any love for her and swiftly select some other girl. Undoubtedly it would be one that was friendlier, sunnier, prettier and…alive than she was; a girl with warm flesh and a beating heart. Not an extremely sophisticated and unearthly illusion of light and seeming matter that could easily fool anyone.

It gnawed at her spark for as long as she thought about it as well. She sometimes hated herself for being so distant, cold and mean spirited. Her justification for acting that way came in the form of the memory of her mother's cruel and inhumane death at the claws of Starcream. Alongside her mother who had perished in the act of trying to preserve the life of her sole creation, Pulsar's innocence and warmth had been laid to rest as well. On that day, she vowed that she would have revenge and she would do everything in her power to bring all Decepticons to justice and restore Cybertron to righteousness; even if it meant killing any and all Decepticons to achieve those wishes. To make those desires a reality, one would need to steel their spark and set aside any feelings of mercy and tenderness even to one's own allies.

Marishka noticed that Pulsar had ignored her. She observed the femme's faceplate, seeing a blank and stoic expression that didn't give a hint of any kind of emotions that might be roiling beneath her armor.

"Pulsar, I can tell something is eating away at you," she said, this time raising the volume of her voice slightly. "I urge you to talk to me. I'll tell you what I've been thinking about…"

"Aaron," Pulsar croaked out. She cleared her vocal components and turned her helm to Marishka. "I've told you a few times that you remind me of my mother, Nebula. But sometimes…" The young mechanical alien scoffed and she intensified her stare on the Gypsy. "You also remind me of the femme who took me in after my mother went offline."

Marishka raised a brow in intrigue and curiosity. She smirked at the being who she saw as the child she never had.

"I don't believe you ever told me about this robotic woman either," she nodded. "I know you told me about how you enrolled yourself in a bootcamp of sorts so you could make your wishes of becoming a spy true."

"It's part of it. When I got a little older, I went to Autobot bootcamp to specialize in intelligence and surveillance. But after my mother's demise, a long time friend of hers took me in as my caretaker. I knew her for as long as I was online too so I was lucky I was assigned to her as her charge and I wasn't shipped off to one of those Primus-forsaken orphanages where too many young Autobots just linger and fade away into obscurity…" She had quite a few childhood friends whose parents were killed by Decepticons and subsequently shipped off to these facilities when no one else would claim them.

"What was her name?"

"Her name was Jakknife. She was a big femme with an even bigger spark." Pulsar smirked at the memory of her guardian. "She had a heart of gold as Humans would say. Jakknife never thought ill of anyone and she always believed in giving others second chances. She really was like another mother to me because she treated me like I was her daughter when she freely and selflessly took me in after my mother offlined."

"What became of her? I know that you had abandoned the bootcamp and your training because you were absolutely certain that the Decepticons were still out in the galaxy, preparing and planning some sort of evil against the Autobots."

Pulsar ground her lower jaw as she recalled on the evening she fled Cybertron. She looked away from Marishka as the memory replayed back in her processor as vividly as if it happened only minutes earlier.

"Jakknife's still alive," she said softly. "When I left her that way at least… been quite a few stellar cycles since I've last seen her. She treated me so well earlier but I think that if we ever met again, I don't think she'd be willing to give me another chance considering what I said to her when she tried to convince me to not leave."

Internally she shuddered at the recollection. Pulsar could feel some coolant beginning to well up around her eyes, threatening to make her cry.

_"Jakknife, there's nothing you can do to stop me from doing what I think is the right thing to do. I love my planet and my people. Because I love my planet and my people, I am going to do whatever I can to make sure the Decepticon stain is removed completely from existence. I know I am a small, puny looking femme but I make up for it with my determination and absolute hatred for all Decepticons. They are monsters; they cannot be reasoned with or forgiven for what they have done. They all need to be exterminated and have their helms mounted on a wall. I refuse to sit around here any longer and just wait and see if they show up again. I am going out to those stars and I will follow them to the ends of the universe if I have to." The ire reflected in her optics burnt brightly as Jakknife looked on in disbelief and shock as Pulsar's rant continued. "Even if I have to blend in amongst them as one of their own and slowly eliminate them one by one, then I will gladly do it. This is my chosen destiny and path, Jakknife and I will not abandon it. This is my purpose. This is my Primus-given right!" The hateful young Autobot glowered at her guardian threateningly. "Now…let me go. You're a fool for not wanting to join me too! Since you don't want to go with me and you want to enjoy your happy life here, be my guest."_

_Without even giving a chance for Jakknife to give a properly formed reply of any sort, Pulsar boarded the shuttle and the bay doors closed behind her. She didn't bother to glance over her shoulder or out a window at the kind-sparked femme who took her in. _

(West Virginia – 5:00pm)

"Oh my God, get me the Hell out of this car, now!"

Before the car could even come to a complete stop, Amanda hastily opened up the door and couldn't even be bothered to close it. She ran to the rest stop's restroom facilities, eager to relieve her bladder and distance herself from the maniac in the car.

"You could've waited til I at least parked!" Robert raised his voice at her as she ran to the lavatory. Shaking his head in disbelief, he finally parked the car. He rubbed his ears when he pulled the keys out of the ignition to test his hearing. As far as he could tell, no blood was trickling from his ears. "Okay, everyone, we're all getting ten minutes to use the bathroom, get something to eat and drink or just to relax… We're all meeting back here at the car in those ten minutes. I'll be buying some ibuprofen if anyone needs me."

He was the second person to leave the car with Helen following him since she decided to buy an extra bottle of tanning lotion before they migrated further south. Only three other passengers remained in the back of the vehicle, not sure whether they wanted to even get out of the car since they weren't really hungry or needed to use the bathroom.

"Darien, I think I might go walk around outside," said Cyndi. She peered out the window, spotting a little picnic area that sat in a green field. "I think I just want to wander around to get the blood moving in me. Want to join me?"

Before Darien could even answer her, Blitzwing instantly spoke up.

"I vill!" Hothead said rather assertively.

"…me too I guess," Darien agreed in a rather mousy voice.

Blitzwing grunted in annoyance when Darien said he would accompany them. He very much wanted to go off alone with Cynthia but he saw he couldn't exclude Darien from joining. He unlocked the door and awkwardly maneuvered his large frame out of the cramped car. After waiting for Cynthia and Darien to climb out, he shut the door behind them.

On the outside, they at last saw the beauty of the West Virginian wilderness. The rest stop was nestled between two green, tree-covered mountains. The picnic area which was a part of the rest stop sat in a field that eventually ended at the base of one of the mountains. The sunlight felt soothing on their bodies and warmed them gently. Robins, orioles and other birds sang their songs in the trees surrounding the trio, calling to their mates. Although there was definitely some humidity present in the air, it wasn't uncomfortable enough to make everything feel sticky and unpleasant.

"I think I just want to go lie down in that field and doze off for a few minutes," Darien said, as the good weather put him in a rather content mood.

"Vorks for me because I'd like to talk vith Cyndi in private until ve go," Blitzwing frowned at the young man.

"Why, what's the issue?" Cyndi wondered. "I'm sure it doesn't really matter if Darien listens in or not. Besides if it deals with your new body, I'm sure he can help you out better than I can because I'm not a fellow male."

"I don't need his help!"

"I just need to talk to jou about somezhing…" Random pleaded softly. "No offense, Darien."

"Hey, I don't care," Darien shrugged. "Just get me up when we're ready to leave, okay? If it was up to me, I'd sleep for an hour or two right here in this field. This gorgeous scenery reminds me of our home back in New York…"

With intentions to lie down in the grassy field, Darien left the side of his sister and her love. While he walked away, Blitzwing scoped out a quiet and secluded zone of the picnic area which consisted of a small grove hemlock trees. He grabbed Cyndi's hand and without explaining anything else to her, guided her to that little sanctuary.

Cynthia wondered what the issue was with him. When Random wasn't raising a ruckus in the car, merrily singing songs and pressuring everyone into playing games, he was clinging to her like a newborn. Hothead and Icy remained very quiet amazingly enough and when they did take control the two would always ask her softly if she was alright before he would kiss her and hold her closer to himself. She could tell he seemed to be anxious or conflicted but she didn't have a clue what was really on his mind.

Even when they made it over to the patch of pines, he still didn't let her go. Suspiciously, he perused his surroundings, only spotting Darien who was a few hundred feet away from them. He snorted at his lengthy presence but didn't mind it all that much. Just as long as no one else was around, that's all that mattered.

"Why're you acting so overprotective and funny like this?" she interrogated. "Is there something wrong?"

Before she could pop out another question for him, he hugged her to his frame and set his mouth atop hers. He engaged in a deep kiss with her, immediately plunging his tongue into her mouth and wrestling with her own. Cyndi yelped in a muffled tone since his invasion forbade her from even exclaiming in surprise. He hoisted her up into his arms and leaned against a tree as he continued to smother her with the kiss.

After a minute of this kissing, he withdrew taking a few deep breaths of air himself. Understandably though, Cyndi was the one that needed to recover the most from it. Her cheeks reddened and she placed a hand on his bicep that was concealed by the pink robe that he was still donning. The woman ran her hand up and down it as she stared into his eyes.

"Now I'm even more intrigued by what's going on," she chuckled.

"I estimate zat ve have about six and a half minutes left before ve must meet back at ze car," said Icy.

Alarmed, her eyes widened and she struggled to free herself from his hold. Almost instantly, she understood what was on his mind.

"W-w-wait a minute!" she stammered. "This cannot happen right here and like this!"

"Vhy not?!" Random whined. "No one else can see us and if ve be quiet enough no one vill hear us!"

"The answer is no! The last thing we needs is to have my father show up out of the blue when he realizes we've been out of sight!"

"So? He knows zat ve're togezher!"

"He…" she sighed heavily. "He believes in marriage first then…"

"Zat's torture!" Hothead said, aghast by Mr. Preston's opinion on premarital affairs.

"My dad came from a very traditional and…by-the-book kind of family."

"Jou had no problem vith it two days ago!"

"Number one, because you wouldn't give up. Number two, I don't agree with everything my Dad says and I'm a twenty three year old woman who can make her own choices!"

He pouted loudly and rolled his eyes, obviously disappointed in realizing he was going to be denied of what he wanted. Despite him seeing he wasn't going to be getting his way, he didn't let go of Cynthia and he continued to hold her in his arms.

"I don't know vhat it is…" Icy started. "I zhink it's a side effect of zis new body of mine. Jou had no idea how hard it vas for me to restrain myself in jour parents' vehicle." He kissed her neck. "Right now, it's all I can zhink about and all I vant to do. I say zat vhenever ve make it down to zis island, ve should go off and explore it, perhaps have dinner somevhere and zhen maybe ve can find a beautiful and quiet strip of beach and…" He chuckled softly in her ear. "Vell, I'm sure jou know ze rest, Cyndi."

Cynthia was more than tempted to agree to his romantic suggestions but she knew that it would be completely asnine and asking for trouble if she did go along with his satisfying his lust. Her parents had only learned of her relationship with him earlier on that day and if they saw her running off with him so suddenly once they reached their destination, she knew that particularly Robert would be incensed. She knew Helen would be disappointed in her disappearing with her love so quickly since she had not seen her daughter since January. As for Robert, he'd be less than pleased and he would most likely confront Blitzwing about it without any restraint. For the sake of familial peace, she saw she'd have to hold the plighted Cybertronian at bay until the vacation was over and things normalized a little.

"How about it?" Blitzwing smiled at her, unaware of what was going on in her head. He rested his forehead against hers and inhaled the scent of her skin. A happy groan slipped from his mouth and he strengthened his embrace around her. "I zhink it vould be a lovely idea if jou ask me…"

"Zhen ve can be back before jour parents get suspicious!" Random giggled.

"And I vill chase all ze ozher organic men avay from jou because I vould have ze most beautiful femme on ze island," Hothead charmingly boasted. "I'd just have jou all to myself…"

A thought occurred to her at that moment.

"I'm surprised that you're so adamant about it," she said.

"As I've said, I suspect it's a side effect of zis body," Icy shrugged. He paused before he spoke again. "Does zis body bozher or displease jou?"

She shook her head heavily, disagreeing with his question. Cynthia ran a hand through his hair.

"You need to stop worrying about how I see you and what I think about your condition," she said in a calm and gentle tone to him. "I still love you as much as before. I still see you as the same. I just think that you need to be patient, alright? If it offers you any comfort, I think you look handsome and quite sexy in your new body. Don't get me wrong though; even in your real body, I still find you very attractive and desirable."

To her great surprise, Blitzwing blushed at her comment. His cheeks became rosy very quickly and his concerned frown was usurped by a tiny but pleased smile. Cynthia giggled with what was happening and she was delighted in the irony that now he was the one with the reddening cheeks instead of her. Pinching his cheeks lightly, the volume of her laughter rose and she smiled largely at him.

"Yeah, I know," Hothead grunted in embarrassment, "I can blush now… Fascinating and humiliating."

"I almost can't wait to stroke your ego some more just to see you blush like a little school kid," Cyndi teased him. "But can I ask you to at least be a little bit patient? Now's just such an inopportune and bad time."

Blitzwing's smile faded yet again since he knew that he wasn't going to get his way. For now, he'd just have to barricade his desires up and seek to unleash it at a more appropriate time. As long as Cynthia promised that he would get what he wanted further down the road, he supposed he could wait even if it meant doing so a little impatiently. What vexed him was that he thought his Human love would be far more open and eager to consummate their passion for each other now that he stood before her as a close replica of her own species. He knew that because of this transformation he went through, he found himself wanting to mate with her more than anything else. He didn't know quite why this craving was ruling him but he suspected that it most certainly had to do deal with his new body. Alongside the new shell, he seemed to acquire a new set of instincts…

"I suppose I can act like a good little mech," Random smirked sheepishly. However, there was a hint of devious and impish mischievity in that smirk. "But I can only vait for so long, sveetspark."

Ever since he had been given the opportunity to live with her in the apartment, his desire for Cynthia increased. He yearned for her and once he did finally get to relieve himself a few nights earlier, he discovered he most definitely did want more. Yet when he saw that he was going to have wait, Blitzwing had a suspicion it was slowly going to drive him even more crazy. If that was the case, he just hoped he'd be able to restrain it as best as he could and not end up causing grief and consternation for his beloved Human.

(Detroit – 11:00pm)

It was almost too quiet and calm for Optimus to believe that things really were serene this evening. His patrol through the city yielded no exciting results. There were virtually no signs of Decepticons. Captain Fanzone didn't call him to ask him for assistance with catching some troublesome human villain. Even the traffic jams weren't especially problematic, heavy or common. It seemed as if everyone and everything in the city decided to take a rare break from its daily chaos.

As he rode along in his vehicle mode, the young Prime scanned his surroundings. For as long as he drove down the city streets, he became more and more convinced that it was going to be one of those unexpectedly calm evenings. Sometimes he wasn't quite used to it since there almost always seemed to be some sort of menace afoot in the city. Optimus ever so slightly lowered his guard as his peaceful urban surroundings urged him that all was well. The only sight that really intrigued him and made him briefly investigate at a stop sign was a crowd of Mohawk-sporting, young adults who were talking loudly amongst each other outside the entrance of a rave club. Other than that little spectacle, there wasn't anything else that really caught his optic.

"I don't know whether it's something to welcome or worry about," he told himself. Optimus found his optics gazing upon the prominent and colorful hairdos that the young folk donned. "Wow…my focus must really be lacking tonight if I'm looking at the Human's vivid and unusual hair instead of being aware of my surroundings…"

One of the young men in the group vomited on the sidewalk, missing Optimus by a few feet. His peers cheered loudly when this happened and they huddled around him as he continued to empty his stomach of all the alcohol he had imbibed.

"Round two!" another young man exclaimed. "Round two! Come on, Donnie, suck it up!"

Before Donnie could even finish regurgitating up the rest of the booze he consumed, his friends began to push him back into the club for the second session of dancing and drinking. When that happened, Optimus decided it was time to move on. He particularly wasn't very thrilled by the idea of being barfed on by some inebriated, naïve clubber.

For a few more minutes, he continued to drive along and resume his patrolling dutires. Just as before, nothing came up or seemed interesting enough to grasp his attention. As long as it remained so boring and quiet, he became woozier and his desire to go recharge became stronger. The only two things that were keeping him fully online were his moving wheels and his thoughts.

Chiefly, those thoughts consisted of the past few days, specifically when he and Ratchet had traveled up to the northern regions of Canada to investigate the site that had been devastated by three Decepticons. He was also pondering over the dark and disturbing voice recordings Silas made that Captain Lennox discovered and shared with the Autobots. There was also the foreboding hint that Megatron had three organic spies employed in his services. Optimus didn't want to immediately assume that the same girl who had went missing for a day back in January and was abducted briefly in February was the same Human who was one of those turncoats. Prowl still remained adamant and kept asserting that he was more than ready to accept the Prime's order to follow the young woman around to get an idea of her true agenda. However, Optimus still remained reluctant about the offer and didn't want to give the order unless if he was absolutely certain that she was in cahoots with the crafty and vile 'Cons.

At the time being, he didn't really know what to make of what he was embroiled in. Optimus knew that his comrades were just as baffled as he was and were certainly shocked that a Human organization had been terminated under their nasal plates by the Decepticons. As he had time to reflect on that organization, Optimus now began to wonder if he somehow could've allied his team with MECH in order to combat and subdue the Decepticons on Earth. But he was sure that as long as Silas was in control of MECH, he would turn down the offer and instead pursue his vision of ousting all Cybertronian presences from the planet.

To top it all off, there was the tainted Allspark shard the Decepticons were assumed to still be holding…that needed to be dealt with as well. Unfortunately, the location of the opposing faction's base was still a mystery to him and his teammates. As long as their lair remained undiscovered, so would the fragment.

"I'll just have to take it all one step at a time…" he muttered to himself.

Optimus retreated from his vehicle mode and made his transformation into his bipedal form. When he did this, he realized that he had been reflecting too deeply because he found himself in a rather decrepit and dilapidated portion of the city. All around him, he saw abandoned buildings with shattered windows, pieces of plywood barricading doorways and spray painted facades. The street lights next to him flickered on and off slightly and he activated his headlights just so he could properly view his surroundings. Various kinds of garbage and rubbish were strewn across the sidewalks, almost as if what little residents that did dwell in this depressing neighborhood didn't give a care at all about their tiny niche of the community.

"I think I might've been too lost in my thoughts and I didn't pay attention to where I was going exactly," Optimus noted. Instinctually, his guard came up as he continued to survey the unsettling area. He had a sinking feeling in his fuel tank that this could potentially be the highlight of his patrol.

When he took a few steps down the road, his spark jumped when a cat hissed loudly at him. His headlights shone on the feline, showing its arched back and puffed out tail. The cat's mouth was also opened up widely in a snarl, displaying its fangs in a threatening manner. As suddenly as it made its presence known, the feral cat retreated from the robotic alien. It ran across the street and into a dank and inky alley.

Besides the cat, the street was totally void of life. He peered into the dusty and broken windows, seeing no lights shining from within rooms. While some of the buildings appeared to have been abandoned for quite a number of years, there were some structures that looked as if they had been inhabited up until a few months, possibly even a year or more ago. Optimus guessed that as the threat of the Decepticons remained present within Detroit, many people deemed it necessary to pack up and leave their homes behind for their own safety. He felt bad that they were forced to relocate because of the Cybertronian presence; after all, it was the Allspark the Decepticons were after and the Autobots were its keeper. Yet he hoped that when all this mess would be sorted, all those people would return to their homes and resume their lives.

Optimus continued to observe the depressing scenery, feeling a little crept out by being in this urban graveyard of sorts. He felt unwelcomed even though there was no one present. It made him all the more suspicious that he began to get the distinct feeling he was being watched. Who or what it was, he had no idea…

He froze up in utter surprise and fear when he felt something touch his neck. It felt as if digits were gently caressing him. Optimus gasped loudly and spun around to face his company but found nothing but thin air. His helm turned from the left to the right a few times in a rapid succession, trying to find whoever had touched his neck in that…sensual way.

"Who's there?!" he called out.

Nothing but the silent night answered him. Optimus held his ground for a few moments and waited to catch sight of or hear anything that could betray the lurker's presence. His spark pulsated a little faster. He drew his axe, preparing to defend himself if necessary.

"Whoever you are, you better come out and show yourself!" the red and blue Autobot refused to look weak or spooked. "I will defend myself if I have to!"

It was no Human, he was sure of that. The digits that he felt on his neck were of Cybertronian origin. What frightened him the most was that the way the cool fingers touched him was hauntingly familiar. All the current problems he was dealing with were pushed aside as his memories of a certain femme returned. His own digits traced over the area where the familiar stranger had touched him. His optics shut for a brief moment.

Behind him, there was a faint scuttling noise. Optimus' blue optics shot open in an instant when he heard the skittering that sounded like some kind of insect crawling right by him. He turned around to face the source of the noise only to discover the asphalt of the street. The sound still persisted but it sounded fainter, informing him that the creature was moving away from him.

"W-wait!" he called out frantically.

He bolted after the figure that was just out of reach of his headlights. Inside his spark, he had a feeling he knew who this was. They had been reunited on Earth after a thousand stellar cycles of being separated from one another. After all these years, Optimus was still in love with this tortured and wayward soul as much as he had been when he first met her. It was excruciatingly difficult for him to deal with the pain of losing her and he felt like a hypocrite for not really disclosing to his teammates of their past.

Optimus was herding this femme into an alley with the intentions to confront her and attempt to reconcile with her once again. He was mildly shocked to see that she allowed this to happen and she continued to move down the pitch black corridor on her eight legs. He halted at the mouth of the alley, blocking her escape and pinning her against a building. Despite this, his headlights didn't extend too far down and he still couldn't see her.

With his spark overflowing with so many emotions, he took a step closer. When he did that, a pair of red optics suddenly shone from the back of the alley. They sneered at him, displaying anger and woe in them.

"Elita, please," Optimus whispered. "I told you to come back with me once and I will ask you yet again…please…" He put away his axe to show her that he meant no ill will or harm towards her. "Please, you have to understand that I don't see you any differently. What I see is the one I've fell for at the Academy…"

The techno organic femme opened her second pair of eyes. Now a total of four optics glared at him from the shadows. More than anything else, she wanted to run into his arms and always stay in them. But she had learned that she could no longer trust him or any other Autobot for that matter. She gave her spark to him and he left her to the spiders of Archa-7. Deep inside her spark though, she found herself still having feelings for him. A thousand stellar cycles of bitterness and angst had ruled her but she couldn't resolve to set Optimus aside and move on.

She had left her haven on Dinobot Island to check up on him and she had done exactly that. Now that she had completed the task, she decided it was time to move on. Her former lover's presence was too painful to be in at the moment.

When she said nothing to him and continued to stare back at him, Optimus decided to make another move. He took a few steps deeper into the alley and she shut her optics.

"Elita, wait!" he cried out. "Listen to me!"

Before his headlights could cast any light onto her, Blackarachnia transformed into her beast mode and swiftly scaled the wall. She didn't bother to look back at him as she felt tears watering up in her optics while she still remained under the guise of a large spider…


	52. Sin and Sun

**Thanks for the faves/reviews/follow! Alright, you guys are gonna hate me for posting up a big old chapter but I kinda wanted to get a few things done in it and not have it spread across the future chapters. Also, this is an awkward chapter...I guess... so this chapter may not be everyone's cup of tea (I promise it won't be as creepy as chapter 45) and I just wanted to give everyone a head's up about that. There will also be taste of the dark side that Cyndi will be forced to endure very shortly. The reason for that being that no relationship is perfect and I wanted to show that Blitzwing is by no means the perfect...robot boyfriend XD Oh and by the way, Daufuskie Island is a real place in South Carolina and not some random location I've made up for the Preston family vacation to take place. Look it up if you wanna. So, hopefully you'll like this chapter! Review if it strikes you fancy and please enjoy!**

Chapter 52 Sin and Sun

(North Carolina, hotel – 12:05am)

Already being in a rather foul mood didn't make matters any better for Amanda. Scowling heavily, she hovered a mere few inches away from the bathroom door. She stared incessantly and angrily at the closed door with a million furious and violent thoughts running through her head. For a half an hour, she waited for the current occupant to take a shower. With each minute that went by, she became increasingly impatient and irritated.

"_I'm going to kill him_." she thought to herself. "_I'm going to smother him in his sleep tonight if he spends so much as five more minutes in that bathroom! I don't care if he's new to this being Human gimmick, I need to wash my face and brush my teeth!_"

She was so frustrated that she was on the verge of crying. Biting her lower lip roughly, Mandy bumped her forehead against the door. With all her might, she was restraining herself from busting the door down and dragging him out of the bathroom by his hair.

"Mandy, get away from the door, please," Cyndi said, noticing her sister becoming slowly undone. "Will you have some patience?"

"Cyndi, it doesn't take this long!" she blurted. "I have to use this bathroom too!"

Cynthia put a finger up to her mouth, giving her a silent signal to be quiet. Their mother, father and Darien were settling in the room right next to them. The eldest Preston sibling was in no mood to have Robert knock on their door telling them to keep quiet and go to sleep.

"He will be out very shortly," she said calmly, almost sounding as if she had confidence in her voice.

"He's worse than I am!" Amanda said in an exasperated voice. "I thought I took forever in the shower! My God, he is such a diva!"

The blonde haired girl almost stumbled into the bathroom when the door suddenly opened. She quickly took a few steps to get out of his way as Blitzwing exited the bathroom. He (thankfully) was no longer wearing her pink robe. Instead of the robe, he was wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of red boxers. Shortly after the family checked in to the hotel for a quick overnight break, Cynthia hustled over to the store to buy him some t-shirts, boxers, a pair of shorts and some shoes that would suffice until they got to their destination.

"'Bout time you got out of MY robe," she said snobbily to him. "It looked hideous on you and it made you look fat."

"Jou're just jealous it looked better on me," Random grinned. He chuckled and walked away from her.

"And sorry, zhere vas no air freshner in zhere," Icy looked over his shoulder. "Don't vorry, ze stench vill dissipate after a few minutes."

At that point, Amanda was beyond angry. Her jaws tightly clenched and her hands were curled up into fists that had veins bulging from them. The blood in her body boiled and she just wanted to pounce onto his back, wrap her arms around his neck and strangle him.

"Really?" Cyndi sighed in frustration. "You couldn't at least turn the fan on in there? That's really rude and gross."

Blitzwing ignored Amanda's hellish fury and Cynthia's disgust and took a seat on the bed he was sharing with his love. He scooted over to her side and enfolded his arms around her. Then he kissed her neck and hugged her to his body.

"Did you hear what I just said?" Cynthia asserted herself. "Don't ignore me and act all cute and cuddly with me."

"Oh, come on!" Hothead said. "I vas just messing around!"

"You were just being an ungrateful, repulsive, mutant slob is all," Mandy snapped.

He smirked darkly as she vented. He got a kick out of seeing her angry and he had to admit he loved annoying her. Her insults and screaming didn't affect him at all and he relished seeing her give up in utter frustration once she'd notice her efforts had failed.

"Vhat's jour problem, Mandy?" Random asked daftly. "Jou're such in a bad mood!"

"You're my problem!" Amanda pointed a finger at him. "You're acting like a spoiled, obnoxious, little douchebag!"

"Jou forgot 'handsome' too…"

"No, you're hideous! You look like something that scientists fished up from the bottom of the ocean!"

Now Cynthia's patience was becoming tried and tested. It would only be a matter of time before her father would rap against the door or slam a fist against the wall and tell them to shut up. She was also getting fed up with the way her sister and her love were almost always at each other's throats.

"Both of you, please!" she begged. "Shut up! We have to be out of this hotel by ten tomorrow morning and I don't want to be kept up late into the night because you two won't shut your mouths!"

Cynthia pushed herself out of Blitzwing's arms. She turned her back on him and folded her arms across her chest. Her gaze focused on her sister.

"Amanda, come on," her sister urged. "Do what you need and let's hit they hay. I know we're all getting on each other's nerves because we were in the car all day. Tomorrow afternoon, we should be at the island… I promise things will be better then."

"I don't have a problem with anyone!" Mandy shook her head. "I just have a problem with him! When we get to the island and if he keeps this up, someone's going to get pushed off the ferry and be at the mercy of the sharks!"

Instead of replying to her verbally, Blitzwing stuck his tongue out at the young woman. She growled deeply and returned the childish gesture to him. After doing that, she entered the bathroom at last despite the smell that was still lingering within it.

"You're the bigger problem out of the two of you," Cyndi scolded him, facing him once more. "I know how much you delight in torturing and pestering her and it's got to stop."

"I'm not doing it to be mean or anyzhing…" he tried to explain himself.

"You're doing it because you're a jerk. Cut it out now, I'm warning you." Blitzwing wasn't expecting to her to act so critically and harshly towards the teasing. For a moment, he sat stunned, trying to come up with some sort of defense to rationalize his actions. But before he could speak, she resumed. "Seriously, if I have to deal with this for the entire time we're on this vacation, we're going to have some problems. I know you can't be that dense so please, stop it. Don't ruin this for me. Knowing my dad, I'm sure he is very suspicious and curious of you and you need to be on your best behavior and not make Mandy angry enough to leak to my parents that you're actually a three storey tall robot."

He exhaled through his nose. Blitzwing seemed as if he was mulling over the situation for a little while as he listened to her words. She did make plenty of sense and he wasn't keen on revealing his true nature to her parents. Undoubtedly, Robert would make his life a living Hell if he had discovered his eldest daughter was being romanced by him. Since he did love Cynthia, he reminded himself that it was in both their best interest to settle down as best as he could.

"Alright," Icy spoke up. "I do understand. My apologies, dear. Vould jou mind if I held jou tonight or are jou still quite cross vith me?"

Cyndi was just tired both physically and mentally. She didn't care anymore.

"Just as long as you stop fighting with her and go to sleep, go on," was her answer.

She pulled down the sheets on her side of the bed and wormed her way under them. Her back was still facing him and she lain her head down on the pillow. He didn't join her under the sheets and preferred to hold her against his body as his source of comfort and warmth. Cynthia smiled when he did though, secretly enjoying the feeling of his arms around her.

"Goodnight, Cyndi," he said. He kissed the top of her cranium. "I love jou."

Her smile grew when he said those three words. A warm sensation encircled her heart and then insulated her cheeks as she could feel a blush creeping in.

"I love you too," she said to him, "anytime, any place and no matter how you look."

He chuckled softly in her ear. The couple shut their eyes with the intentions to turn in for the evening at last.

Just a few seconds after she spoke to him, there seemed to be a sound coming from the bathroom. It sounded as if Mandy had dropped or slammed something against the counter in anger. After that commotion, the bathroom door opened and the young woman rushed out. She made a beeline to the room's door and turned the knob. Without saying a word, she exited and disappeared into the hallway.

Cynthia sat up in the bed and stared at the now closed door in confusion. From the way her sister moved, she could sense that she seemed very angry and in a rush. She also failed to say anything to her when she left which concerned her. There was definitely something wrong and it worried Cyndi.

Still feeling a little guilty for angering his beloved and acting like a brat towards Amanda, Blitzwing got up from the bed. He decided to find out what the problem was and bring her back to the room.

"Do you want me to go find her?" Cynthia offered.

"No, rest," he shook his head. "Jou need some sleep."

"Okay…" She was now even more worried that he was going to be following her. "Please, don't make things even worse. Bring her back safe and sound."

"I vill."

(…)

Amanda had no desire to step out into the parking lot since she knew Lockdown would be lurking out there. If he had seen her as she was now, he would undoubtedly question her about what the problem was and she was in no mood to talk to him, let alone even see him. To find some peace and seclusion in the hotel, she decided to retreat into the darkened and serene swimming pool room. She was surprised it was even unlocked and thought it was the cause of a careless janitor. However, she took advantage of the situation and took refuge in it.

She sat down on a chair and stared at the glass-like and undisturbed surface of the water. A series of lights were built into the pool, giving it a calm and soothing glow, making it seem as if it was almost enchanted. The whole atmosphere seemed so conducive to relaxation but the heartbroken young adult was hardly affected by the aura. As long as there were no other living souls with her, she'd be somewhat content.

"_Why do they have to rub it in my face?!_" she irately complained to herself. "_I know they don't know about how Lockdown just stomped on my heart but they need to stop acting so cute and mushy with each other when I'm near! It's tearing me apart!_"

Some stray tears dribbled from her eyes and fell on her hands. Amanda shook her head slowly and mournfully. Just like last night, she was going to be crying and be feeling sorry for herself. She still had no inclination towards telling anyone about what happened exactly. However, as long as she kept mulling it over in her mind and reflecting on it, it was slowly driving her more insane and melancholy. In her mind, when he told her he didn't love her, it was completely unfair and cruel. She loved him and wanted to be with him despite the obvious differences their respective species posed. Mandy believed he should've felt the same way. Instead, he just said that she was too much of an immature diva…that struck home much harder than she thought it would.

"_I don't care!_" she continued to confide in herself. "_I love him! Maybe I can't take revenge on him by kissing up to that new medic…I want to but I can't at the same time. And I can't just move on like nothing happened because I'm still thinking about Lockdown. I can't get over it. Damn, why did I have to fall in love with an alien?! We're all going insane…maybe Blitzwing's rubbing his crazy germs all over us."_

Her heart jumped in her chest when she heard footsteps against the tiled floor. Quickly, she lifted her head up, ready to explain herself to the hotel staff member who was going to scold her for breaking in. When she shortly discovered it was no employee and someone else who seemed all too familiar, she didn't know what to feel.

"What, Blitzwing?" she asked miserably, not bothering to hide her tears and unhappy face.

"Jour sister vants jou to come back," Icy's voice said to her. "It is late and ve must leave early to make it to our destination." When he made it to her side a few seconds later, he saw her tears. Upon seeing this, he was curious. "Vhy are jou crying?"

"I-it's nothing," the girl lied.

"So jou just decided to cry for ze Pit of it," Hothead concluded. He didn't sound convinced at all. "I don't believe zat."

"What does it matter to you? You're only going to make fun of me and make this worse like you always do!"

"I know Humans vell enough to know vhen one is upset…" Although he just barely tolerated her at times, Blitzwing still felt protective of her since she was Cynthia's sister. He had promised Cynthia that he would help to look after her siblings especially now that they were working with Megatron. "Jou can't fool me."

"Let me ask jou one question," Random took his turn. "If I get it right, jou have to tell me about it."

"Whatever…" Mandy droned, not caring.

"Is it about Lockdown?"

To her great annoyance, he guessed it right. She was hoping he was not so observant. Mandy scoffed out loud.

"Yeah," she said, "it is…"

"Vhat did he do to jou?" Hothead said rather assertively.

"Before I tell you anything I want you to do something for me, okay?" Blitzwing fell silent for a moment. But a few seconds later, he nodded his head, wordlessly agreeing with her terms. "Don't tell anyone else about this. Only Cyndi and Darien can know…I mean, they don't know yet either but they'll figure it out sooner or later."

"Don't vorry, jour secret is safe vith me," Random winked at her.

She smirked ever so softly at the wink. Normally, she was dead set against entrusting him with anything but she figured that as long as she made him promise to only keep it between her and her siblings, things wouldn't be so bad. Not only that, she figured that if she told someone about it, specifically someone of Lockdown's own race, she'd feel a little better or gain some sort of closure.

"I'm sure you probably figured it out by now," she began. "I've fallen in love with Lockdown. When you and Cynthia were gone for the night, I went outside to go talk to him… I also wanted to go out there to tell him the truth about how I felt. I couldn't wait any longer because I just felt so optimistic and happy about being in love with my guardian. You know, now that I think about it, maybe I was being really stupid but I was convinced he'd feel the same way I did…" She sniffled and forced back some more tears that wanted to course down her cheeks. "I told him…and he said he didn't feel the same way I did."

What she told him answered the suspicions he had earlier about something being off between her and Lockdown before they made the trip. She was just mad at him that he didn't return the love she felt for him. He didn't want to offend her or to make her all the more upset that would possibly make her suicidal so Blitzwing thought it would be wise to not comment or offer insight as to why Lockdown might not have returned the love.

Blitzwing stood silently, trying to figure out how he could console her exactly. It wasn't everyday that anyone really told them of their dashed hopes especially in the affairs of romance. He pitied her because he had his fair share of let downs and heart breaks as well.

"I'm sorry, Mandy," Random said in an apologetic tone.

He wondered what more he could say to her. Then he decided to remain quiet and see what else she would say. He'd go from there…

"Thanks…" the blonde sighed. "But maybe I am an immature, spoiled brat. I'm starting to realize that now especially since I just fought with you a bit earlier. Maybe if I wasn't the way I am, maybe he'd love me back!"

"Vell, jou are young," said Icy, "so it makes sense zat jou're confrontational and…headstrong. Vhen jou get older, jou vill calm down. I don't recommend jou changing jourself just so someone can love jou. If anyzhing, jou look desperate and petty. Perhaps he is just not jour type. Have jou considered zat?"

Amanda didn't know what to think. She also wasn't expecting Blitzwing to be willing to discuss it. She started to almost feel relieved that she let him in on her little dilemma.

"Not really," she said. "I've been focused on him…"

"It also has occurred to me zat jou might be developing an infatuation for Knock Out," he noted, stopping her before she could go on. "Judging from vhat jou told jour parents earlier, it seems zat vay…"

Truly, she wished that he wouldn't have picked up on that. That was a matter she wanted to keep a secret from him for the time being. Being that they were already discussing Lockdown, she supposed it wouldn't hurt to also chat a little about the red medic.

"Yeah, I think he looks…great…" she murmured.

"I zhink it is a horrible idea to take revenge on Lockdown zat vay," Blitzwing resumed. "I highly advise jou to drop it. Lockdown vill be terribly offended by it and he may even cease to be jour guardian. Jou have two allies in ze both of us. If jou lose him, all jou have is me. I say to keep vhatever friends jou have."

For as much as he spouted idiocies and did many questionable things, he amazingly made sense. That really vexed Amanda and with each second going by, she didn't regret speaking to him. As strange as it sounded too, he almost seemed to be wise in the matter. She wondered as if he had his fair share of disappointments and trials in these matters like she did.

"But it hurts!" Amanda looked straight into his eyes.

"I know it does," he assured her. "It vill keep on hurting for a little vhile but I promise zat time vill ease it slowly but surely." Blitzwing at first hesitated to elaborate to her he suffered a rejection as she did but he deemed it necessary to share that little tale with her. "Let me tell jou somezhing, Amanda. I do understand jour pain. I don't zhink Cyndi told jou about zis but I vill tell jou a little story."

Intrigue held her captive. She never would've thought that Blitzwing would be able to attract a female of his own species which is why she assumed he settled for her sister (that and she believed her sister was insane for falling in love with him). She remained silent, signaling him to continue on with whatever he had in mind to tell her.

"Before I met jour sister, I vas in love vith a Decepticon femme," he said. "I met her vhen she first joined our ranks. She vas a techno-organic and at first zat organic part of her repulsed me but after some time, I saw past it. I noticed zat she seemed to be intimidated and very uneasy joining us so I made a point to introduce myself to her sometime so she could at least be comfortable vith me vhile I helped her varm up to everyzhing. I vas starting to fall in love vith her… But before I could do zat, I got caught in a battle vith Autobot forces and I vas gravely injured; so much so zat much of my body needed to be reconstructed. As it turs out, ze same femme who I planned on acquainting myself vith vas tasked vith rebuilding me by Megatron. She did exactly zat and zat's how I became ze bot jou know. Vhen I voke up from ze finishing procedures she did on me, I tried to express my gratitude to her and I told her how I felt about her…" He frowned as the memory played through his head. It was all in the past now but it still brought him a little down when he reflected on it. "She replied by telling me all mechs vere ze same and I could never love her for vhat she vas. To make zhings all ze more strained, she knocked me unconscious vith her venom. I vas sore from her rejection for quite a few stellar cycles but I eventually moved on. It vas not ze end of my vorld and jou shouldn't let jour disappointment be ze end of jour vorld as vell."

Amanda didn't know what to say at first. She ended up feeling bad for his romantic failure.

"That really sucks, Blitzwing," she said. "I'm sorry that you got denied like that. She sounded like a real bitch."

He chuckled at her latter statement and smiled a little.

"Yes, she is," Hothead nodded. "But she's not my problem anymore."

"Hey, remember zat one movie ve all vatched togezher vhen I lived vith jou for a month?" Random asked almost casually. "Jou know, ze one vhere zat octopus-Human-zhing cut his heart out and zhrew it in a box vhen his girlfriend dumped him? Don't be like him! I'm pretty sure jou vouldn't even live zhrough it anyvay vith all ze blood jou lose!"

She laughed and smiled at the comparison he made. Amazingly enough, Mandy felt a little better. In all honesty, she could say that she never felt this happy talking to him and being with him before. The young woman was starting to feel more grateful than ever with having him be in her life. It was almost refreshing to speak with him and have him contribute his own input and thoughts about her crisis.

"I guess you're right," Amanda admitted. "It still hurts a little bit now but I'm sure it'll get better. I'll survive one way or another."

"Perhaps it is best zat jou two maintain distance anyvay," Icy returned. "After zis vacation, I'm sure jou'll feel better and feel more confident dealing vith him."

"Thanks for listening, Blitzwing. You're also way wiser than what you let on."

Without warning, she got up from her seat and hugged him. Blitzwing didn't know how to react at first and he just let her embrace him. However, his Random personality certainly knew how to reply to the hug. Smiling largely and giggling like a child, he embraced her in return.

"It vas no problem, Mandy!" he said.

"And sorry for acting difficult earlier," she added. "I'm gonna try to adjust my attitude around you. I know I said that before but I need to make a real and honest effort now."

He let her go, prompting her to release him as well. It seemed as if he one more thing on his mind as he didn't break eye contact with Amanda.

"One more zhing before ve head back to ze room…" he said.

"Yeah, what is it?" she was vexed by what it could possibly be.

"I am very sure zat despite ze strained relationship jou two are having now, Lockdown is still protective of you. I'm sure he has good reason too. I remember jou saying jou zhought Knock Out vas…vell, quite ze knockout. I urge jou to stay avay from zat bot."

"Lockdown told me he was a heartbreaker. At first I thought Lockdown was just trying to be a jerk with me and lying but since you're warning me about him, I guess his reputation's pretty real."

"Very much so. He's broken a great number of sparks. He believes he is ze most beautiful robotic organism in ze universe and he treats everyone else whom he views as lesser as disposable refuse. He vill absorb all ze attention and love his admirers shower upon him and zhen give nozhing back to zem. A great number of femmes have fallen victim to him…and now zat I zhink about it, I'm surprised zat some of zem haven't killed him for breaking zheir sparks."

"Are girl Decepticons that mean and nasty?"

"I vould be liar if I said zhey veren't. Based on personal experience, I zhink zhey are more ferocious and vicious zhan some of ze mechs."

"One zhreatened to rip out my innards and strangle me vith zem vhile I slowly vent offline from energon loss!" Random said with a loud laugh. "It vas all because I told her I zhought she had a cute little aft!"

"Now enough of zis nonsense!" Hothead rumbled impatiently.

He took Mandy's hand and began to walk to the exit. Before he'd know it, Random would be telling her things that he didn't even feel comfortable discussing with Cynthia for as long as they remained standing together by the swimming pool. More than anything else, he just wanted to rejoin his organic love for the rest of the evening.

(4:30pm, South Carolina)

"Robert, enter the roundabout before we have to go down this one way street!"

"Stop yelling, Helen! I know what I'm doing! You let me do the the driving, alright?! You didn't drive at all for this entire time!"

"Hey, I was your copilot this entire time! I actually did the hard part by reading the map! You just went whatever direction I told you to go in!" She smirked competitively at her husband. "So, I was pretty much the one that got us down here if you think about it, my love…"

Robert growled in annoyance. He entered the roundabout just as she had directed him to do. It seemed that the closer they got to the ferry launch site that would take the family to the island they'd lounge on, tensions flared up between them. Even the cheery and sunny Helen began to sour a little for as long as she was seated next to her crabby husband. The both of them just couldn't wait to get out of their car and place some distance between each other when they finally made it to the launch.

Their three children preferred to ignore them. They had only witnessed their mother and father fight a few times before but from those experiences, they knew it wasn't particularly serious or grave enough to the point where divorce was in mind. As far as they had seen, their parents were still very much in love with each other and separation was absolutely out of the question for them.

Helen turned around in her seat to face her children and their last minute guest. She smiled warmly at them, acting as if she and Robert weren't in a squabble a mere minute ago.

"Sorry," she said, "we'll all feel better whenever we get on the island and we all have our own little slice of personal space and peace… I must especially apologize to you, Johann. Normally my husband and I don't get into arguments this loudly."

Blitzwing was barely even paying attention to what Helen was saying. In fact, he was hardly aware of the little feud Mr. and Mrs. Preston got into. His attention was largely devoted to the sights that the seaside resort town offered as they drove through it. What he was observing was not the beautiful, blue vastness of the Atlantic Ocean that reminded him of Lake Erie or the hordes of seagulls that congregated around trash cans to scavenge on old French fries. Instead of those, he seemed to be solely focused on one thing and one thing only.

The Human females.

Once more, he began to blame this on his new body. Before his transformation, he would sometimes spot an organic femme whom he deemed pretty but then think nothing of it as most of the time he was too occupied with fighting Autobots or running errands for Megatron. After meeting Cynthia and falling in love with her eventually, he would still have the mindset with the native females except he would quickly treat them as afterthoughts since he was enamoured and devoted to Cyndi. But now, it was different and it was starting to worry him. The scant amount of clothes they were wearing especially didn't make matters any better for him and he could feel his heart batter against his sternum and beat faster with each bikini-clad woman the car drove by.

Blitzwing didn't have any idea how intense his stare was because some of these women looked back at him when they got the creeping sensation was watching them. Some of them gave him nasty looks and flipped him off since they were disgusted by a stranger oogling over them. Others peered back at him, not sure of what to make of him. Then there were some women who smiled playfully at him or even tried to hide a blush since they were flattered or felt empowered and confident that they had a young man look at them longingly. As long as he continued to study them, he could feel a smirk creeping across his face.

"Johann."

He completely ignored his alias since he was still entranced by the sight of all the females. Against his will, lucid and perverse thoughts ran through his head and all three of the personas ended up tolerating them and daydreaming. Seeing all of them started to make him feel ambitious and he started to view himself as a lucky man who stumbled across a whole harem who was more than ready to have him claim them. All his insecurities about being trapped in a Human body had dissipated and he was more than confident now.

"Hey, Handsome."

When he heard Cynthia call him by one of the names she called him, he was snapped from his trance. He felt as if he had been snapped from a dream and for a moment, he forgot just where he was exactly and who he was with. Blitzwing saw her hand resting on his shoulder and when his gaze fell upon her face, he could see Cyndi smiling at him.

"V-vhat's going on?" he asked awkwardly, clearing his throat.

"What's your head doing up in the clouds?" Cynthia asked, reaching out with her fingers and sweetly stroking his beard. "My mom was talking to you earlier and I called your name."

"Oh, my apologies, Mrs. Preston." He forced a smile out as he turned to Helen. "Vhat vere jou saying?"

"I was just saying sorry that you had to see Robert and I squabble," Helen said affably. "But it looks like it didn't really phase you anyway!"

"How much longer?" Amanda asked both of her parents. "I'm dying to get out and go for a walk on the beach!"

"Not too much longer, Mandy," her father answered. "I'm working on it, just give me a little more time, honey." He then set his full attention on the road once more. "Oh, thank God, I found a sign for this ferry!"

Like Blitzwing, Darien found himself staring out the window as well. But unlike him, he felt intimidated and drained when he saw all the women. They all reminded him of Tristan Cooley. Yet in his mind, he believed that none of them could hold a candle up to the beauty he had seen in her. He had never seen her in a bikini but he was pretty sure that she would outshine what he was seeing.

While it seemed that everyone else in the car was oblivious to what Blitzwing was so engrossed in watching, Darien was aware of what he was doing since they had been doing the exact same activity. His curiosity was peaked when he saw his elder sister huddle closer to her sweetheart. Blitzwing returned the affections by holding her and smooching the crown of her head. But shortly after he kissed her and she shut her eyes to relax against him, he looked out his window once more to spy upon the women.

Darien felt a knot form in his stomach and he began to feel extremely anxious and worried. He had a sneaking suspicion of the tumult that was building within the disguised triple changer. For now, he'd resolve to just watch him and see what more would unfold. If he feared that things were not going to end up favorably, particularly for Cynthia, he'd inform his sister right away…

(Daufuskie Island – 7:00pm)

The house the Prestons rented for the week was thankfully exactly what they needed even with the inclusion of the unexpected boyfriend. There were four bedrooms that would adaquetly give the family members their own private space and sanctuary. There were also two bathrooms, a spacious living room area and a split kitchen and dining room. In the house's backyard, there was nothing but woodlands where deer took refuge from the sweltering humidity under the canopies of Spanish moss-covered trees. The front yard had much less space than in the back and the only distinguishing feature it had was a large pink rhododendron bush that sat on the right side of the house. To make up for the lack of a real front yard, the house had a wrap around porch that offered a view of the rest of the more redeeming qualities of the property.

Since it was already getting late, everyone decided it would be a good idea to either relax at the house or explore their surroundings by taking a walk. Tomorrow, the family planned on extensively sightseeing the island, spending a good portion of the day at the beach and relaxing at the cabana. Everyone had high hopes that the vacation would be a very lazy yet rejuvenating retreat that all would enjoy and talk about for the next few decades. While Mr. and Mrs. Preston wanted to blow off some steam with a bottle of wine, their younger charges still had had some energy to burn.

"Why the Hell didn't anyone tell me that they had alligators on this island?!" Amanda nearly screamed.

She ran back to the safety of the porch. Her green eyes fearfully scanned the pond that sat across the street. She could still see a suspicious figure that carelessly floated in the middle of the murky pond, looking a lot like a blackened log. It then submerged beneath the water, disappearing from her view.

Upon seeing that she wasn't hallucinating and the "log" turned out to be an alligator after all, Mandy shuddered in terror. Her hands tightly gripped the railing and she refused to tear her gaze from the pond, knowing that the large reptile was in the pond and possibly ready to hunt her. She continued to stare at the pond for a few more minutes before she retreated into the house.

"Didn't you hear me?!" she asserted herself as she walked up to her father. "Dad, why didn't you tell us there were big alligators here?! I almost got pulled into the water when I decided to check out the pond across the street!"

"Oh, you did not," Robert said. "Dear, the further you go south in this country, the more alligators you see. If we were vacationing in Florida, you'd be a nervous wreck. Just stay away from the pond and if you see it, respect it and go the other way."

"Dad, it's an alligator! People get killed by them!"

"Amanda, bring it down to a roar, please."

"Can't you shoot it or something?!"

"No, if it becomes a problem we call the authorities and then they'll take care of it."

"I hate reptiles so much…" She pouted to herself and fidgeted in place. "We didn't have to worry about them in Detroit!"

"Seeing these alligators should be a treat in comparison to those barbaric extraterrestrial robots…"

Huffing in disgust and disbelief, Amanda walked off to her room, deciding to stay in her room for the rest of the day. It didn't occur to her at all that as she traveled further south, there'd be a greater chance that she'd cross paths with local reptilian fauna. The only reptiles she encountered back home in New York were garter snakes or the occasional copperhead and she planned those were the only run-ins she'd ever had the misfortune of having.

When she left his presence, Robert refocused his attention on his eldest child who was standing on the deck, overlooking the backyard. Upon seeing that she was alone (for the moment), he decided to take advantage of the situation. He walked through the French doors that led to the deck and approached her.

Cynthia looked over her shoulder when she heard footsteps making their way towards her. She smiled warmly upon seeing it was her father.

"Hey, Dad," she grinned.

"Cyndi," he acknowledged, wearing a small smile of his own. "Would you mind if I had a word with you for a few minutes? I see that your boyfriend had left your side for the briefest moment so thought now would be a good time."

Her pulse heightened ever so slightly. She quickly disguised this and folded her hands together, disguising the sweat that was starting to seep from them.

"No, I don't have any problem with it," she said. "What's up? This should be nice anyway since we haven't had a good chance to talk together in person since January."

Robert took a step closer to her, signaling his daughter that he wanted to keep the conversation strictly between the two of them and no one else. Cynthia understood this and nodded. She leaned in closer to him.

"I noticed some things happened in my absence," he resumed in a low voice. "Mr. Johann Blitzen is amongst those unexpected things…where the Hell did you meet a guy like this? He's a rather odd character."

"I met him at the mall," Cyndi answered. During the duration of the drive, she had cooked up some stories to explain and tell to her parents should they have any questions about Blitzwing. "I was in the food court enjoying a cup of hot chocolate…he was the one that came up to me. He asked me for help with finding a store in the mall, explaining it was his first time being there and saying he just settled in Detroit from Germany recently. Then it just hit off from there. He was very charming…"

"They usually are charming." His smile had evaporated. "What worries me is that you never bothered to tell your mother and I about this fellow. Furthermore, Darien and Amanda failed to inform us about him too."

"I wanted to see how it went before I decided to tell you and Mom about him. I asked Amanda and Darien to not speak about him with you."

"It's not like you to keep us in the dark about something like this. I know that you were absolutely elated when you ran home after school to tell us that Wes Larkson liked you."

"Dad, it was a phony confession. Wes only did it because his friends dared him to. I found out a week after he told me he liked me and I told him to get lost. Yeah, I forgave him and all too… But I wanted to be sure Johann and I might've had something special before I could tell you."

"He has some sort of mental issue too."

Cynthia sometimes hated the fact that her father was a lawyer. He was way too observant and detail oriented than what she preferred at times.

"Yes, I know that," she said. "But it doesn't bother me or make me think badly about him. It's not harmful nor does it give me a reason to dump him. I like it actually. It helps to make him unique and define his own character…or characters with the personality thing…"

"It's annoying," Robert sighed. "Plus, you have to think about it like this, honey… You may be okay with him having it but if you ever decided to marry him and have children with him, then your kids might end up having his…problem."

Cynthia wanted to burst out laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of his statement whenever she heard it. She also couldn't fight back some heat she felt festering in her cheeks. It was simply impossible. They were of a completely different species and there was no way they could ever have children together. Before she had met Blitzwing, she thought that maybe having one child or two would be nice. But now that she was with him, the chances of her having that become a reality were nonexistent. Cyndi didn't mind it and had no problem living with that.

"Wow, Dad…" Cyndi couldn't hold back the laugh for as long as the thought dwelt in her mind. "Really?!"

Robert, on the other hand, didn't comprehend with what was so funny to his daughter. His stare hardened and he didn't relent his gaze on her.

"I'm being serious, Cynthia," he maintained his serious stance. "You have to think of the future in order to face the problems in the present. Nothing is ever truly inconsequential."

"So…" Cyndi started laughing even harder. "So, I have to think about my eggs?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, you do. Cynthia, look… even though you're no longer living with your mother and I, I still worry about you. I worry about all three of my children. Sometimes I worry about you the most because you're the one who also has to look after your brother and sister. At times, I wonder if it was wise to let those two go with you when you left for college." His smile returned. Mr. Preston set a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "But I've seen that you've done a good job so far. Amanda and Darien are happy to be with you. If they were running wild or acting out of control, I know you'd inform me but you never did so I know everything's okay… I am very proud of you, Cynthia. I can tell you've grown up so much. You've become a beautiful, responsible, clever and promising young lady. For now, I will trust your judgment with this man you've fallen for and I wish you all the luck with him. I also know I've told you this countless times and you're probably sick of me telling you this but I want you to know that you can talk about anything with me. I will listen to you and I will always do whatever I can to help you."

Robert leaned in closer to Cyndi and placed an affectionate and tender kiss on her forehead. For the briefest moment, she felt as if she had regressed in age and became a five year old again before her father whenever he kissed her. The blush she was cursed with earlier resumed but was now caused by the nostalgia.

"I know…" she said sheepishly. "I'm glad you are there for me. I do appreciate it. I love you, Dad. And thanks for being so proud of me…"

"And I love you, Cyndi," he said. "Don't forget that."

It was only a shame that Robert didn't know that his daughter was lying to him. Not about loving him but saying that all was well. He had no idea of what force was controlling all three of his children…

(Detroit , hospital gardens – 8:30pm)

Nathan Albright was a little perplexed when the nurse told him that someone had a visitor waiting for him in the hospital's garden. When he questioned her as to who it was, she replied by saying that it was someone not Human. His thoughts immediately turned to the one Autobot who had sheltered him inside his vehicle mode to recover while the army continued to excavate the destroyed MECH headquarters. Nathan asked her if it was a red and white Autobot by the name of Ratchet. She replied by saying it was not the particular inorganic in question but it was one of them. That meant that there were four other possible Autobots who could be this visitor.

Patiently, the former MECH guard sat in the darkening garden. While he waited for his visitor to show up, he observed a pair of bluebirds who roosting in a maple tree for the evening. As he watched the tiny birds huddle close to one another on a branch, he could feel a smile form on his face. They twittered softly to each other for a few seconds and then fell silent. They tucked their heads into their wings and then shut their eyes.

Since he had survived the attack on the headquarters, Nathan felt as if it was a sign that he should restart his life and turn over a new life. He almost felt grateful that he was even sitting in the wheelchair that he was going to be confided to for the next month or so. It would take him a little while for to be rehabilitated but he was optimistic. Soon enough, he'd be back on his own two feet and setting forth with the new goal in life he was determined to carry out.

His thoughts on the Autobots had changed. Since he had time to himself and had nothing else to do while he remained in the hospital, Nathan reflected. He was ready to fully forsake and never look back on his previous occupation and the more he thought about it, he was elated with the thought of aiding the aliens he had once been trained to combat. To him, the Autobots were allies and were to be especially valued since the Decepticons were still roaming about and terrorizing the populace. While he once frowned upon even thinking about allying himself with them and offering them his help in combating the eviler robots, he now considered it a rare honor. In fact, he had no idea why Silas hated both Autobots and Decepticons so passionately. Nathan had just assumed his old boss had a deep and primal fear of them that he was determined to eliminate both factions from the face of the Earth.

"Mr. Albright?" a sudden voice came out from the trees around him.

The man nearly jumped out of his wheelchair in surprise. He was so focused on his thoughts that he failed to see or hear the Autobot's approach.

"Yes?" Nathan cleared his throat. "Yes, that's who I am. Are you my visitor?"

He spotted the slender form of the Cybertronian gently squeeze past two trees. Nathan was curious when he saw the robot meander through the garden, noticing that the larger lifeform took great care in avoiding disturbing any flora and fauna. The waning rays of sunlight shone on the Autobot, showing the Human his black and gold color scheme. His eyes traveled upward, spotting a blue visor that he donned, concealing his optics.

"I know you're an Autobot but I don't know your name," Nathan admitted. "The only two I've had the pleasure of meeting are Ratchet and Optimus Prime."

"I'm Prowl," the ninja bot revealed. "I will not keep you too long because it is getting dark and you must rest and recover more from your ordeal."

"I've realized just how strong or lucky I was when a Decepticon broke my legs and I survived only to be talking to you right now, Prowl. Judging that I'm spreaking to you now, I can assume you know my name too."

Prowl smirked. He had to give the man credit for maintaining his spirits despite his restricting condition.

"Of course," he said, nodding his helm. "Normally my teammates and I would come before you together and ask you questions but I needed to see you alone."

"Alright…" Nathan wrinkled his nose in contemplation. He had no clear idea where this was going yet. "How may I help you?"

"You told Ratchet earlier that you'd offer your services to helping us and I was wondering if you were still up to the task."

"Of course I am. Right now I cannot really help you and I am ashamed of that but as soon as the doctors deem me to be fit again, I will be doing whatever I can to aid you."

"You can help me by telling me again the names of the Human spies so I have true confirmation and have a lead to investigate."

Nathan frowned. For a moment, he had forgotten that the Decepticons had Humans in league with them and employing them. When Prowl mentioned them, his mood fell. He still could not understand why the three souls had given offered themselves to the evil faction. Just as he planned on making the Decepticons pay for their crimes against humanity, he was hoping he'd have their organic agents suffer the consequences for turning against their species and planet. In all honesty, he had no desire to even let the agents live if he crossed paths with them.

"I might as well tell you everything I can about them and not give you just their names," Nathan said. "I'm sure you know a lot of this already since I'm sure Ratchet told you it but I will confirm it for you personally. There are three spies; two are girls and the other is a boy. The boy was captured alongside Starscream and when they were transported back north to where our base of operations was, Silas interrogated the boy. Now, I don't know the exact details of what went on because I was not in the room and I did not talk to Silas about it… But after Silas got done talking to him, he issued an alert out to everyone in the base. He said to be on the lookout for two women by the name of the Cynthia and Amanda. They were going to be coming for the boy because they were his sisters. He also said that they were either going to show up before or after the Decepticon rescue party would arrive… We were told to be on high alert and immediately bring these two women to him if they were seen. We did end up containing them but then two Decepticons came, murdered countless men, released Starscream, destroyed our facility and then flew off into the night with their spies. That's all I know."

Prowl had carefully and quietly listened to the account without interrupting the man. The tale Nathan told him had remained unchanged as when he first told it to Ratchet a few days earlier. He highly doubted he would lie about what happened but he wanted to make sure there were no little inconsistences in comparison to the first time he told it. Interestingly and also not surprisingly enough, this woman named Cynthia was in the picture again. This was the first time he heard about this Amanda but he vaguely recalled that when Cynthia was reported missing half a year earlier it was her brother and sister who called the Detroit Police Department about it. He didn't remember her name and he didn't know the name of the brother either but there were too many similarities and parallels going on that it was screaming to be investigated. Nathan's narrative was the final catalyst for him…

"Thank you, Mr. Albright," he said politely. "I appreciate you recounting what you witnessed. You see, this Human named Cynthia may have had a history with the Decepticons earlier than you may have thought. She was reported missing by her brother and sister sometime during the winter. Then shortly after that, she was abducted briefly by them again when they attacked the city last time. This all seems to be much more than a mere coincidence to me."

"Is that so?" Nathan was genuinely shocked by that bit of information. "Then, my friend, I would encourage you to hunt her down and see if this really is the case."

"I plan on doing a little investigating very shortly. I know where she lives and I think I will do a little surveillance duty."

"You know where she lives?! What are you doing talking to me? I suggest you snatch her right out of her home and turn her over to the police!"

"I cannot do that just yet. I have patience and I will make sure that she truly is in league with them first before I or any of my teammates can confront her about it. However, something in my spark tells me that our greatest suspicion is indeed correct. It also happens that her brother and sister live with her too."

"All three of them in one place? It's the perfect opportunity to nab them!"

"I admire your enthusiasim but we shall see soon enough if everything truly is as it is. We could be right and we can also be wrong." He took a step back. "Thank you for your time but I should be on my way now. Optimus does not know I came here to see you. But someone must do this and not wait for another event to occur that could be potentially disastrous."

Nathan dearly wished his legs were not frozen within the casts they were encased in. More than anything else, he wanted to aid Prowl but for now, he saw that physically, he was unavailable.

"I understand," he said darkly. "I won't tell anyone what you plan to do either. This must be taken care of. It makes me sad and angry that my own fellow mankind sided with the Decepticons and I will make sure that they pay with their lives."

Prowl was taken aback by the severity in Nathan's voice. He knew that he had deadly intentions in mind if he had gotten a hold of the spies himself. The ninja bot shook his head in disapproval.

"This is where we differ," he said. "The more I've thought about it lately, I believe it is also possible that they were forced into Megatron's servitude. It could be possible that they had no choice for whatever reason. If that is the case, they should be given some leniency. But we will deal with that issue when we get to it sooner or later." He turned his back on the organic and began his journey to reunite with his fellow Autobots. "I will see you again shortly I'm sure. Thank you again."

Nathan said nothing in reply. All he could do was stare at his folded hands in thought.


	53. Stab

**Thanks for the faves/alert/review. Alrighty, so this is (oh God) where some drama starts and things start to take a nosedive for the main couple. Why am I doing this to my OCs? Because I am their cruel goddess :3 I particularly enjoyed writing this chapter and hopefully you guys will like it despite being kinda sad and depressing to read. Heck even some of you guys maybe LOL-ing into the sun when it gets nasty~ Anyway, drop a review if you like and as always, please enjoy the update!****  
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Chapter 53 Stab

(Decepticon lair, July 25th – 12:20pm)

With a look of sick curiosity forming on his alabaster face, Knock Out silently studied the vial of crimson fluid he held in his claws. For the past two days, he had been observing and examining the exact properties of the blood he had acquired from Blitzwing. So far, it had been somewhat of a mystery for him to identify and locate some sort of pathogen or virus that had instigated his violent transformation into an organic. He had spotted nothing of that nature in the samples he examined under a microscope and the medic was fully convinced that it was a type of radiation poisoning or mutation that the triple changer had been the victim of.

Even with some input and assistance from Professor Sumdac (much to Knock Out's reluctance and misery), he ended up reaching the same conclusions. The pair had failed to procure a remedy as well and they had both wondered if Blitzwing was doomed to remain in his current state until he perished. Yet they were unwilling to confess their collective thoughts with Megatron just yet for fear that he would be severely displeased with their progress and eliminate them. For now, they had decided to take a little break and possibly share any ideas and hypotheses with each other as to how to find a cure for their crazy comrade.

"Okay, so all we can see so far is that he's Human…but he's not…" Knock Out said. He sighed wearily and continued to gaze at the vial of blood. "And you know as much as I do about the Human genome, Professor Sumdac, which is, in actuality, not much at all."

"And we just so happen to be tasked with dealing with something that was absolutely unheard of until recently," Sumdac added. "That's about our luck right there."

Knock Out scoffed. He didn't want to admit it, but he was right. The vain Decepticon still thought little of the organic who had been assisting him but he had built up a tolerance to him. He also found himself developing some respect for Sumdac's intelligence and insightfulness.

"That seems to be right, my rotund friend," he said with his optics still focused on the vial. "Tell me, Professor…how exactly do you think this malady our friend is suffering from will carry on? Will this be permanent and irreversible like a mutation or will it recess but may or may not return in an untold number of stellar cycles like a virus? Or, could it possibly be a combination of both?"

"Well…I'm not entirely sure…"

"Good, me too!" Knock Out cut him off before he could say anything else. "Perhaps the sample we have now is not sufficient enough for us to make any real progress." He grinned wickedly. "We will need to retrieve better samples. Maybe a biopsy will be good enough… An organ would probably be perfect."

The devious tone in his velvety voice and the mischievous, devilish smirk he had on his faceplate had Sumdac convinced that his true and desired motives were nefarious and selfish rather than beneficial and benevolent. In truth, he somewhat pitied Blitzwing and the condition he was in. Although Blitzwing had not treated him very kindly in the past at times, he was still going to do what he could to find a cure. He was also prepared to seize the project himself and continue it if Knock Out was only going to dawdle and ponder over what would be the perfect sample to retrieve.

"I think that's a little drastic and unnecessary," a new voice spoke, heralding the presence of an ally.

Starscream approached the professor and the medic. His arms were folded across his chest, concealing the amber colored glass that covered the cockpit. The seeker stopped a few feet away from them and his raptor-like optics didn't seem to be focused on solely one soul.

"Oh, Commander Starscream, it's good to see you stop into our happy lab and check up on our progress," Knock Out said. "The Professor and I were just wondering about certain things…"

"The blood you have will suffice," Starscream interrupted. "I do not think Megatron will take too kindly with you taking what you see fit from our compatriot's fleshy frame. As his second-in-command, you can always inform me of what medical procedures you have in mind and I will relay them to Lord Megatron for confirmation."

"It was merely a suggestion, Commander. It's not like I would have him in a cage for the rest of his life like a test guinea pig."

Starscream wasn't entirely thrilled with what Knock Out was saying. Like everyone else in the base, he was ignorant of the hidden kinship that bound him and Blitzwing together for their entire lives. He still wanted to keep the relationship very low key and hidden from all but lately, especially since the incident with MECH, he felt his brotherly affections resurfacing. This only magnified when Blitzwing had undergone his metamorphosis and Starscream began to worry about his younger brother as much as he had done in their lost years. Although he wouldn't let anyone know the truth about them, he would still be protective of Blitzwing in his own subtle way.

"It would not please our lord and master," said Starscream. "He still has use for Blitzwing which is why you are working on finding a cure…" He narrowed his optics at Knock Out. "Let me rephrase that; you are working on finding a cure right now."

"So far, we have found out that the Human genome has bonded perfectly with his Cybertronian code," Knock Out explained, showing that he and Sumdac truly did make some advancement. "He is of both species, as disturbing and convoluted as that sounds."

"Can it be undone? That is what matters the most."

"We don't know yet," Sumdac spoke up. "Since he had been infected with radiation from that Allspark fragment, we don't know if it's even possible."

"That's not a good enough answer! You two better work harder on finding a cure or something before things get even more serious! It will not only correspond to Blitzwing but to yourselves!"

Starscream had unexpectedly lost some of his composure and patience. He quickly reminded himself to act as if there was no suspicious link to him and Blitzwing. If they had found out about that dirty little secret, they would immediately inform Megatron. If Megatron had found out that both of them had been lying to him about that, he'd have both of their helms mounted above his throne. As far as Starscream was concerned, he still planned on living for many stellar cycles and trying to overthrow his lord and master yet again sooner or later. The seeker was also fairly confident that Blitzwing wanted to stay online as well.

"Perhaps it is out of line for me to speak out on this, Commander, but what real value does Blitzwing have for you?" Knock Out questioned, raising a brow ridge.

"It is quite simple if you actually used your processor for understanding common sense rather than vanity, Knock Out," Starscream hissed. "If Blitzwing is to remain in that horrid condition for the rest of his days, then he has lost his value. That means that we are short of one bot. That further means that I have more work to worry about. We are all doing our part now and I don't feel like taking on Blitzwing's duties if he should be…decommissioned. That is why I am telling you two brilliant scientific minds to light a fire under your afts and hop to it!"

"We are doing what we can, believe us," said Sumdac as he folded his hands together. "This isn't very easy. This isn't necessarily our area of expertise and we're learning more and more about this along the way."

Starscream huffed and scowled at the both of them. He gave them some credit because he was pretty sure that if he was tasked with solving this problem, he'd be utterly clueless and at a loss as where to even begin. However, he wanted results and he wanted them as quickly as possible. He had trusted that Cynthia would watch over him but he was still a little doubtful and wary of her keeping him under wraps and even controlled. If something had happened to her while she cared for him, he wondered how well Blitzwing would fare without her guidance. The triple changer was no longer as powerful and independent as he was in his true body.

"Very well then," he said, deciding that Sumdac's reply was the best answer he was going to get for now. "But we had better see some results shortly. We don't have forever, you know. With each solar cycle that goes by, it is entirely possible we are losing chances at curing him."

Turning his back to them, Starscream walked out of the room. He didn't bother to say anything else to them or even look back over his shoulder. The makeshift laboratory's door closed behind him with a soft click.

"I don't know about you, Professor, but I plan on pampering myself when this is all done and over with," the red 'Con sighed. "I can almost feel my paintjob peeling from the stress of this." He sneered at the door that Starscream exited through and raised the volume of his voice. "And it certainly doesn't help with some bots looking over our shoulders and downplaying our endeavors!"

(Daufuskie Island, 12:30pm)

Once again, it seemed as if the family had segregated into their usual sects. The two older Prestons decided to have lunch at the local restaurant while their children wanted to lounge for a little bit at the cabana. The cabana was adjacent to the restaurant and was actually owned by it so the two groups were in close proximity to one another. After they had done their respective activities, they planned on driving around the island to find a quieter place to relax on the beach.

Blitzwing and the siblings had claimed their place in the corner of the cabana's swimming pool area. The four of them sat on some beach chairs and patiently waited for Helen and Robert to finish up their meal. Three of them were content to get a headstart on their tanning before heading out to the beach later. The odd one out was far less at peace than his companions and he could care less about darkening his skin. He was far more interested in the things he wanted to fulfill in that skin instead.

Impatiently, he ground his lower jaw and continued to stare at Cynthia's placid form on the beach chair. Her eyes were shut and she wasn't aware of his uneasiness even though she sat a foot away from him. Blitzwing eyed the blue and yellow polka doted tankini she wore, secretly hating it. He much preferred to see her in a bikini despite her protests and her beliefs that the particular type of swimwear did nothing to flatter her frame. To remedy the situation, he settled on looking at the exposed flesh below her suit's skirt and her cleavage. With each second that went by, he became more and more restless and yet he kept himself in control as best as he could so he wouldn't end up creating an embarrassing and public spectacle.

When everyone had settled in last night and retreated to their respective rooms, he had tried to coerce Cyndi into doing some sneaky and quiet lovemaking. He was confident that she would be receptive at that point since they had finally been granted a room of their own and some separation from her family members. When his Human love had denied him yet again, he was shocked and a little irritated that she had done this once more. Cynthia had explained that he would have to continue to wait and he'd most likely do so until they made it back to Detroit. She promised him she would do it if he just waited for a week and was no longer under the watchful eye of her parents. Unhappily, he agreed to her terms and left her alone for the rest of the night.

Twelve hours after that denial, his lust still remained. Blitzwing was starting to wonder if there was some ulterior motive she refused to inform him of. He was very sure that she would be more willing to mate with him even more now and he was looking forward to it eagerly. But it seemed to be completely contrary from what he was faced with. Once again, he wondered that if she was secretly repulsed by and hated his new body. His desire was clouding his judgment enough to believe that falsity. It was also being marred enough that he failed to see her parents' presence as the primary and true reason why she refused.

The disguised Decepticon decided to try again. It wasn't like they were both doing something important and busy anyway.

He placed his hand on her arm and ran it up and down the length. A soft smile shone on his face, encouraging himself to be a little hopeful and optimistic. Perhaps she'd give into his persistence and allow him to cheat and have his fun now rather than later.

"Cyndi," Random called her, "my scrumptious, lovely femme…"

Her blue gray eyes opened up and she turned her head towards his direction. She returned a smile to him.

"I can tell you're buttering me up," she said. "What's up?"

"Please..?" His smile became strained and awkward.

Cynthia exhaled in exasperation and she rolled her eyes.

"Blitzwing, I knew you were dense but you just took it to a whole new level," she whispered harshly. "How hard is it for you to understand that this a horrible time?! You're starting to really annoy me now. I'm ready to tell you to go find a tree."

"Trees aren't varm, squishy and moving," the mischievous personality chuckled childishly.

"No seriously, you need to stop with this. How do you think you would like it if I was this obnoxious, persistent and desperate with you?!"

"I vouldn't have any problem vith it because I vould drop vhatever it vas zat I vas doing." He winked sultrily at her. "Jou know vhat I zhink about it…"

"No!"

"Oh, come on!" Hothead pouted. "Zis is boring sitting in zis chair sveating my aft off!"

Angrily, Cynthia dug through her purse she placed between their chairs. She retrieved her wallet and pulled out a ten dollar bill. Then she shoved it into his hand and pointed to the bar.

"Go use those ten dollars and go buy yourself a beer," she instructed. "Hopefully you'll calm down with some alcohol in your stomach. Please get out of my hair."

She lain down on her belly and turned her head away from his direction. Cynthia closed her eyes and tuned him out. There was no desire in her heart to deal with him at the moment.

Blitzwing glowered at the ten dollar bill in his hand. He stared at it with fury in his eyes for a few seconds before he crumpled it up. Rejecting her suggestion, he tossed the money aside and left his seat beside Cynthia. Seeing he had no real place to go to, he ended up going to the bar and took a seat.

The bartender had seen the squabble from the distance and decided to ignore the patron until he decided to speak to him first. He really didn't want to end up getting involved with it or end up angering the man any further. As long as he continued to quietly look at the patron, he could've sworn he had red irises. This sent a chill down his spine and unnerved him. Quickly, he resumed his previous task of retrieving some bottles of beers from the cooler for some other customers.

Blitzwing continued exuding an aura of angriness and frustration and some of the other patrons noticed that. Some cleared away from the area and decided to go for a stroll alongside the gravel road and others tried to ignore him as best as they could. He ignored the nervous Humans and sat stewing in his emotions, not caring that he unsettled others.

For the umpteenth time, she had refused him and it had last been quite some time ago that he was this irked with her. With each denial and refusal, he was becoming more and more convinced that she was hiding something from him and not being completely honest with why she was doing this. A part of him wanted to march back over to her side and confront her about this but he was in no mood to have her angry at him and make his mood even more foul. He was very frustrated that he was cursed with these extremely powerful urges in this new body and she would not help to alleviate his plight. He was very much in love with Cynthia and he only wanted her to fulfill him. Yet with all these failed proposals, he wondered that possibly he'd have to find an alternative. Rape was completely out of the question because he had no desire to hurt her and possibly lose her love. He also saw it was a despicable, petty and lowly way to get what he wanted. A release was all he needed. It would only need to be done once and he'd wait until they made it back to Detroit.

While he had been engrossed in his thoughts, he failed to notice a small group of people observing him from across the cabana. They had not budged at all and they had been eyeing him up ever since he first walked onto the premises ten minutes earlier. Like a trio of scavenging vultures, they had patiently waited and had been praying that he would leave the woman's side whom they deduced to be his girlfriend. Upon further seeing that they bickered amongst each other briefly on some subject, they were fully ready to take advantage of the situation. One of them looked back over at the girlfriend and her other two companions, seeing that their eyes were shut or they were lying on their stomachs so they could begin coloring their backs. The group of women left the table they were congregated at and hustled over to the unsuspecting man.

"Are you okay?" a voice said suddenly spoke right beside him.

Blitzwing wasn't expecting a stranger to speak to him but he didn't jump in his seat in shock. Calmly and coldly, he turned his head to face the owner of the voice. He was expecting just one woman but what really made him jump was that there were three women surrounding him. All of their eyes were on him and he had no clue how to react to this at first.

"Vhat does it look like?" he snapped at them. "I got into a fight vith zat difficult voman over zhere!"

The three women appeared to be about Cynthia's age, give or take a year. One was a brunette, another had caramel blonde hair and the last one had black hair. All three of them had slender builds that they flaunted with their one-size-too-small bikinis. The blonde one had her hair up in a messy bun and the remaining two wore their long hair down. Their bodies were quite tan, giving the hint that they spent much of their time on the beach or at the pool. They were also wearing make up, specifically eyeliner, eyeshadow and some lip gloss. The feature that stuck out the most prominently to Blitzwing was that he thought all three of them were attractive and easy on the eyes.

"That's a pity," the same woman spoke to him. She was the one with the black hair. "We can keep you company while you're sitting here so lonely-like. My name's Verona."

"I'm Paris," the brunette said, setting a hand gently on his arm and lightly squeezing around his bicep.

"And I'm Serena," the blonde introduced herself last.

At first he was leery of these three women. But now, Blitzwing began to see an opportunity presenting itself to him and he was more than tempted to seize it and have his wishes fulfilled. They obviously had an interest in him and he was enjoying the way Paris' hand was on his arm. His posture loosened and became less tense and guarded. A smile crept across his face and he basked in the attention they were thrusting upon him.

"Now I must introduce myself to jou zhree lovely ladies," Icy said, deciding to use them to his advantage. "My name is Johann. I must say it is very nice to meet jou and I am very grateful for jour company. Vhy don't jou all sit down and ve'll chat for a bit?"

"_Zis is a bad idea!_" Random's voice echoed in his head. "_As pretty as zhey look, if ve get caught, ve'll be in big trouble! Cyndi, Mandy and Darien are at ze ozher side of ze pool! Zis isn't right eizher, ve can't do zis to Cyndi…_"

"_Shut up!_" Hothead yelled back. "_I don't zhink zat Cyndi even cares anymore! If she vants to be like zis, zhen so be it! Zhese femmes have been far more interested in me zhan she had been vhen I got zis body anyvay! I vill talk to zem, disappear for a little vhile and zhen come back…I'll come up with a good lie._"

The three women took their seats next to him. Blitzwing stealthily looked over his shoulder, checking up on Cynthia. She was still in the same position when he left her side. Some guilt churned in his heart but he hoped that perhaps she would feel happy for him that he wouldn't pester her if he relieved himself with someone else. He hoped that she would understand. He would do it once, dump these women, come straight back to the Human he truly loved and never do it again.

(…)

Twenty minutes went by and Cyndi had not heard or seen him since she told him to go to the bar. She half expected him to get bored there and end up returning to his seat beside her. Although she was sick of his begging and she wanted to take a break from it, she still felt responsible for him. A part of her also nagged at her to check on him since she feared he was causing mischief of some sort. Breaking up a rowdy bar fight that he instigated with his bad mood was not on her list of things to do on this vacation.

Cynthia flipped over and sat up. She caught sight of the money she gave him earlier a foot away from where her chair was. Stretching her arm out, she grabbed it and put it back into her purse.

"Oh, man, I hope he didn't walk off somewhere," she mumbled to herself.

"Cyndi…" Amanda said sleepily. "Can you put some sunscreen on my back? I dozed off for a little bit and it's burning like Hell…"

She glanced over at her sister, seeing that she was burnt already. Cynthia cringed at the redness, feeling bad for her. Undoubtedly she was going to need a lot of aloe vera cream to soothe it.

"Honestly, I don't think it matters at this point," she said. "I would say flip over."

Cyndi looked over at her brother to check on him. He had been quiet all day and he hadn't said a peep since they arrived at the cabana. From what she could see, he was staring at something across the pool where the bar was at. Darien's jaw was agape as if he was looking on in shock and disbelief. She traced his point of reference and saw what he saw.

Her stomach turned to rot and she got a horrible feeling as soon as she could see what looked like three unfamiliar women surrounding Blitzwing. She had no idea what to think at first since she was so astonished and confused by this sight. But as she observed it longer, she could see that he didn't seem to be resisting their presence. In her furiously racing mind, that could only mean one thing to her. Her heart nearly burst in her chest when she came to this conclusion and her eyes felt like they were burning.

Without saying anything to her brother and sister, she leapt off her chair and jogged over to the bar. She didn't take her eyes off the three women and her love for the entire time she made her way over. With each second that went by, she felt sicker as long as she continued to look on. Cynthia became more and more suspicious but she also refused to believe that he was actually planning on betraying her and trying to pick up these strange women. She simply couldn't see him intentionally doing this to her. With all her heart, she earnestly hoped that her fear was a false alarm.

She stopped just short of the bar and his seat. Blitzwing and the trio of harpies didn't seem to have seen, heard or sensed Cyndi's approach. One of the women were stroking his left bicep in a sensual and fluid motion and judging from his posture, he seemed to be completely okay with her touch. Another woman was whispering something in his ear and after she pulled her head away, he was chuckling throatily.

That was it for Cynthia.

"What the Hell is going on here?!" her voice was raised but it sounded like it was wavering.

In almost perfect unison, the women turned their heads over their shoulders and locked eyes with her. Cynthia felt a little intimidated by this. The catty sneer in their eyes also made her feel that she was very much unwelcomed. But she refused to stand down before whoever these girls were. They were surrounding her man and she would not let them get away with it.

"Oh, it's you," Serena lazily drawled and rolled her eyes.

"It's me?" Anger filled Cynthia and further emboldened her resolve to not back down. "Excuse me, but who exactly are you?!"

Blitzwing had no idea his angered organic femme was approaching him or standing behind him until she spoke. His eyes widened when she heard the fury in her voice but he could tell that she sounded confused and hurt at the same time. For a few moments, he was hesitant to turn around and face her since he was busy concocting a plan of some sort to get himself out of trouble. Yet her aggressive approach had prompted to react the same way towards her. He was also still angry and frustrated with her for denying him and forcing him to resort to desperate measures. He was fully prepared to shift all this blame onto her so he could justify his actions.

"Cyndi, zhere's no need for zis, jou're going to make a fool of jourself by acting like a child," Icy scolded. He turned around in his seat to face her fully. There was a bitter frown on his face and his gaze was cold. "I'm merely enjoying conversing vith zhese very friendly and unselfish ladies. Jou see, ve vere just getting ready to leave."

Cynthia looked at Paris' hand which was still caressing his arm. A very hot sensation enveloped her face but this was no happy blush.

"Get your filthy hand off of him right now!" she ordered her. "In case you bimbos haven't noticed, I'm his girlfriend!"

"Honey, from what Johann told us, you've been very neglectful and mean towards him," Verona explained. "You see, you have…well I should say had now…a very wonderful man and he's obviously too good for you. So, we've decided to spoil him a little and make him feel good about himself."

At this point, she was beyond furious. More than anything else, she wanted to pummel these women and drag Blitzwing back to the other side of the pool by his ears. She was so consumed by anger and she was simply paralyzed just from the shock of these realizations she was making about this situation. Cynthia still didn't want to believe he really was going to walk off with them to satisfy his desires. She refused to believe that this was happening. It was breaking her heart and it felt as if her mind was being bent and twisted for as long as she was dealing with this.

"No…" she said, shaking her head. "No, no, that's not right, it can't be right..!" She growled deeply within her throat and she glared daggers at him. "What did you tell them?!"

"Cyndi, what's going on?" Amanda called.

The sound of Amanda and Darien's sandals slapping off the concrete came from behind her. The eldest sibling made no move to acknowledge or face them. Her attention was focused solely on the current issue on hand.

Blitzwing's patience had all completely disappeared at this point. He stood up, brusquely freeing himself from Paris' smooth stroking. Maintaining a very stern and equally aggressive stance like Cynthia, he approached her. He stopped a mere few inches away from her and stared directly into her eyes.

"I am going out and I vill be back eventually," Hothead said with a very commanding and tense tone in his voice. "I vill not be bozhering jou and I'm sure jou vill be very happy zat I'll be gone. Don't get in my vay, Cyndi. I'm sick of vaiting for jou and I'm not being put off any longer."

"No, you're not going anywhere because your brother and boss told me to look after you!" Cynthia raised the volume of her voice again. She poked him in his chest with a pointer finger. "You are unbelievable! I asked you to please wait and you couldn't be bothered! All you care about is just getting laid and that's it! You don't care about anyone else and as long as you get whatever you want, that's all that matters! I promised you that after this vacation was done…"

"Jou listen to me!" He had lost his temper and he yelled at her thunderously. "Jou're ze one lying to me, saying jou love me as I am and yet I don't zhink jou're telling ze truzh at all, Cynzhia! I zhink jou hate zis new body of mine and jou just don't vant to admit it!"

"You know that's not true! Why is this so hard for you to understand?! I cannot wait until they find that cure for you because I think this body you're in is making you crazy! I'm not letting you leave either! You're not going off with your little concubines!"

"I vill do vhatever I vant, jou nagging, ugly, unbearable and unpleasant femme! I am sick of being told 'no' by jou and I don't need to listen to jou! I'm going out so stop trying to interfere and being such a nuisance! Zhese femmes look much more beautiful zhan jou anyvay!"

As he was being possessed by his anger and his exasperation, he had no idea just how painful and toxic those words were. Even as an uneasy silence swept over the entire cabana, it didn't occur to him. Practically every single patron present on the premises had heard the couple arguing and had stopped what they were doing to gawk at the fight and see exactly how it would turn out.

Blitzwing then saw a look of agony and heartbreak appeared on Cynthia's face. Her competitive expression shattered and she no longer looked like a ferocious and determined warrior. Tears began to drip down her face but she didn't look away from him. She brought her hands up to her face and covered her mouth with them in an attempt to muffle her cries.

As quickly as his fury flared up and lashed out at her verbally, it suddenly recessed and was replaced by dread and disbelief. He gasped and his jaw dropped. His stomach became heavier and he began to feel sick. At that point, he realized just how hurtful his words were to her. Blitzwing himself was speechless with what he had just said and done to her. Tears were dripping down her face and he was the sole cause of that. The very last Human he wanted to hurt was her and he had done the exact opposite of his wishes. He fumbled with the words in his mouth so he could try to salvage their relationship before it could be ruined even further.

"Cyndi…" Random had replaced Hothead as the brash personality retreated in disgust and self-loathing. "Cyndi, listen to me, okay…"

Then he noticed Darien and Amanda standing behind her sister. Both of them were glaring at him and apparently, they got the gist of what the whole squabble was about. Amanda was baring her teeth at him and she was cracking her knuckles, as if she was readying herself to beat him up for what he had done to her sister. Darien's anger was fused with disappointment. All he could do was shake his head back and forth, his eyes boring straight into Blitzwing's.

"I-I get it," Icy said cautiously and delicately. He couldn't believe he had actually said those things to her and he was now desperately trying to find the right words to say to Cyndi to reconcile with her. "I'm done, I promise, Cynzhia. I vill vait and cause no more trouble, I vill go vith jou and…"

"Okay, you kinda broke up with her, are we gonna go or what?" Serena asked impatiently.

Blitzwing turned to face Serena, Paris and Verona. His jaws clenched into a fierce snarl and his hands curled into fists. The red in his irises seemed to burn deeper and brighter almost as if his eyes were being affected by his extreme anger.

"Jou zhree better get out of here right now or I vill kill jou!" Hothead roared at them.

"Seriously, you three skanks better run right now or I will kick your teeth down your throat and you will be crapping them out for a week!" Amanda threatened them, making her way to the trio.

"No, it's okay," Cynthia said cooly despite the fact she was still crying. "Let them go, Mandy. He can go off with them because I don't care anymore. I am officially finished with you, Blitzwing. Congratulations for breaking my heart because you did a really good job of doing it. You're not worth the trouble anymore. Have fun with your three new girlfriends. Boy, won't they be surprised when they wake up next to you one day and they see the man they just had a foursome with magically turn into a three faced robot overnight."

The three women looked at each other in confusion, having no idea what in the heck Cynthia was referring too. Sure they noticed he talked in three different voices at random intervals but the whole robot comment was just outlandish and unexpected. They also had no idea why she called him "Blitzwing". From what he told them, his name was "Johann".

"Cynzhia, please!" he begged. "I made a very stupid and foolish mistake and I take it all back! I didn't mean vhat I said! Please, jou have to understand zat I'm not quite myself vhile I am in zis state…" Blitzwing placed his hands on her shoulders gently yet firmly. "Listen to me, Cynzhia! I never vant to hurt jou but I see I messed up in a moment of passion and…"

"Get your damn hands off me!" the devastated Human yelled. "Don't touch me, don't talk to me, just get out of here!"

Wanting to gain revenge on him and seeking to cause him even more pain, she raised her foot and kicked him in his groin. He cried out sharply in pain as his voice dramatically rose in pitch, sounding almost like a little school girl. Blitzwing fell to his knees and then crumpled up into a fetal position on the concrete floor. He remained immobile and seized in excruciating agony, clutching his groin and whimpering loudly.

"Have fun with your girls tonight with a big old bruise on your buddy," Cynthia said mockingly.

"I don't think so," Paris objected. "When a guy gets owned by his own girlfriend like that, that is totally unattractive. Some man you are."

"This was a wasted effort," agreed Verona.

The three then hustled away from the cabana and left the property. They felt no inclination to gamble with the firecracker girlfriend and her belligerent sister. They were especially not too happy with the idea of the young blonde woman smashing their teeth in and ruining their allure.

Darien felt the tiniest amount of pity for Blitzwing. He was angry at him for what he had planned on doing minutes earlier but he could entirely relate to the injury that Cynthia had dealt him. All he could do was stare at the pitiful position he was in as he still remained immobile and curled up on the floor. The seventeen year old was still astonished that Blitzwing would even attempt to cheat on his love and yet Darien felt a little guilty. He had seen him study the women before they made it to the island but he didn't tell Cyndi about it. But he justified his own actions and lack of disclosure by assuring himself that he had no idea the triple changer would actually be desperate and sly enough to try it.

"Buddy, do you need some ice?" the bartender asked. He had been watching the fight like all other patrons. Since Cynthia had ended the dispute with her kick, the small crowd began to disperse and people went about their own business again. "I got lots of ice…you might be needing it for the rest of the day."

"He doesn't need any," Amanda scoffed.

Cynthia gave her self-proclaimed ex-boyfriend a baneful and harsh glare. There were still some tears dripping from her eyes but she ignored them. She was more than willing to make him suffer even more but she didn't want to make an even bigger scene since too many people had already seen the couple scream at each other.

"C-Cyndi..!" his voice was so high pitched and strained that no one could tell which of the three personas was speaking. "Vas zat necessary?!"

"Was it necessary for you to run off with those girls, have a little fun with them, come crawling back to me and then suddenly act like a civilized and patient human being?" she shot back.

"Cyndi, I don't wanna say this but how're Mom and Dad gonna react to this?" Darien said softly, wringing his hands anxiously. "We have to go along as if everything is okay…we can't let them know anything is wrong."

Cynthia hardened the intensity of her gaze. She felt no mercy or pity towards him in her heart for what he planned to do. All she wanted to do was abandon him at the cabana and hope that somehow the Decepticons would forget about Blitzwing magically and never ask her what became of him.

"Darien, are you serious?" Mandy wrinkled her nose. "He broke Cyndi's heart! We should tell Mom and Dad the truth and we'll kick him out of the house!"

"No," Cyndi said suddenly.

Both of her siblings and Blitzwing were surprised by the fact she seemed to reject Amanda's opinion. Although she had voiced her choice that Amanda and Darien were not willing to discourage her from making, sorrow still reflected in her eyes. Her arms were folded across her chest and she still refused to look away from Blitzwing. She was very conflicted with her brother's suggestion because her first reaction was to recant the notion and leave Blitzwing to his guilt. She also had no intention to make this problem even more serious and troublesome if she abandoned him. If she did, she would undoubtedly face Megatron and Starscream's wrath. They had tasked her with watching over him after all.

"Zhank jou, Cyndi…" he rasped. His groin was still causing him a great deal of pain. "I don't vant to sleep vith ze alligators..!"

"I ought to just feed you to them," the woman cruelly stated. "Darien makes sense. They told me to take care of you and I will bring you back to them. I will try my hardest to put up with you and deal with your stupidity. Besides, I think I will enjoy this in a way. I will make it my mission to make this as uncomfortable as possible for you. When we get back to Detroit, I am dropping you off at that mine and that's that."

Blitzwing could hardly believe his luck. She would not be forcing him to face the wrath of her parents for breaking their daughter's heart. He would hopefully be remaining in the house and he would not be forced to fend for himself on an unfamiliar island. He thought he was going to receive much harsher treatment for his offense against her. Before the vacation would end and they'd be back at Detroit, he was absolutely determined to win her forgiveness and her heart. There was no room for anymore mistakes on his part. A part of him nagged at him, making him believe that another reason why she didn't want to forsake him completely was because she didn't want to let him go fully. Perhaps she still loved him… That thought alone gave him hope.

"Cyndi…" He managed to sit up at long last. His voice still remained high and childish sounding. "Jou said jou vere going to make zis as uncomfortable as possible for me…but I am not giving up. I tried to tell jou earlier I still love jou. I still love jou even zhough it's possible jou gave me irreparable damage to my more...sensitive areas. I don't vant to lose jou or let jou go. Jou're still mine and I vill vin zis."

"You're wrong," Cynthia shook her head. "If you loved me, you wouldn't have done what you tried to do. You would've waited until we made it back to Detroit. I had every intention on keeping my promise to you and you blew it. Now, you'll no longer get anything from me. You're pathetic is what you are. Falling in love with you was the stupidest thing I have ever done in my entire life. I should've never went off to apologize to you and I should've stayed in my apartment where it was warm, safe and sound. Do not touch me and act all sweet and innocent in front of my parents. If you do that, the next time we are alone together, I swear I will make your hurt again. You act as if my emotions are just things you can put a cheap bandaid on and act as if it's all better…" Some new tears moistened her eyes once again and dripped down her face. "Blitzwing, if you think it's that easy, you are very, very wrong. I'm putting up with you for the rest of this horrible vacation and then I want nothing to do with you. I'll have to see you unfortunately when I go to the mine but I won't talk to you anymore or spare you a passing glance. I'm finished so you might as well give up now." She looked over at her brother. "Darien, help him up. Mandy and I are going to see if Mom and Dad are still eating."

Amanda had no wish to disobey her sister or give her consternation. Obediently, she followed Cynthia as the elder sibling left the vicinity of the cabana.

Blitzwing's heart thumped hollowly in his chest as he watched her leave his side. Just as his words stung her earlier, Cynthia's little monologue hurt his feelings as well. He frowned heavily, feeling like a wretched and worthless piece of scum. At the moment, Blitzwing hated himself for following his baser instincts and not following his head. He had failed a test and challenge that had been instigated by his condition. Because of that, he was losing his beloved organic. The love he felt for her was still very much alive and it was that affection that prompted him to not give up. He was paying dearly already with each step she took and he was certain there was going to be more retribution.

"_I'll make up for it,_" Hothead finalized. He said it mentally to keep it to himself and to the other personalities. "_I'm not giving up just like zat! I'm tougher zhan zat! I'm no coward vhen it comes down to her! She doesn't hate me eizher…I don't believe it. She didn't say it and I know she still loves me._" The pugnacious personality had trouble admitting it to his other sides and even to himself. "_I love her. Ve have only been togezher for a little vhile but I love her too much. I love her enough zat I vill remain vith her until she dies._"

In the end, he was hoping that everything would turn out to be alright. There was no room for failure. If by some chance he did fail and she was deadset against forgiving him and returning to him, it would hurt him far more painfully than any femme's denial that he had encountered before.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh, and despite the fact I apparently lost a lot of readers for this story and I've being busy with life and my job and a lack of writing spirit lately I'm not giving up on this just yet. Yeah, I know this story is moving at a snail's pace but bare with me. I also know that this story mimics a lot of events that would make one think they are literally reading LIAL all over again, I've still got some other alterations and surprises planned that hopefully you guys will like (granted that you're still reading this story and haven't gave up on it yet and moved onto greener pastures like some others have). I promise that the very ending won't disappoint or be boring.<strong>


	54. Iron Wills

**Thanks for the reviews/faves everyone! So nothing really shocking or important happens in this one and it's more of a plot development more than anything else. **Tarn **asked me regarding updating my Slenderman story and I'm sorry to say that I have some of the next chapter done but I've been working on other stories like this one and some others and not only that, I've been dealing with work and some other issues here and there. I also apologize that I haven't updated this story in over a month too but like the Slenderman story, I've been working on writing stories for another fandom and people liked what I published so I decided to write more of it. Anyway, please enjoy and hopefully you'll like this.**

Chapter 54 Iron Wills

(Detroit – 1:00pm)

For the first time in two days, there was a sign of life at the Preston sibling's currently vacant apartment. However, it was an unexpected and extraterrestrial presence that had decided to pay a visit to their home. It was also one that they would be afraid of to pay them a visit. This visitor was an enemy of theirs but it was an enemy that they didn't wish to plot and conspire against. Undoubtedly, they would have to call Lockdown or Blitzwing to have to deal with the intruder. It would simply be beyond their control otherwise.

A seemingly ordinary and unsuspicious police officer had stood outside the entrance to the apartment. Behind his blue-tinted visor, he eyed the apartment number, recollecting that it was the exact same number as the address provided in the police report Captain Fanzone had shared with him. This was indeed where his suspect had lived with her brother and sister. He was very sure that he didn't get the wrong place. After all, this was the location Optimus and Bumblebee visited when Fanzone had requested them to join him in investigating the young woman's day-long disappearance off the face of the Earth.

If someone was looking at him with their own eyes, they would think nothing of it and dismiss the sight. Yet, when no one else was in proximity to him, his true nature was betrayed. That revelation came about whenever he literally walked through the door as if he was a ghost.

Prowl's holoform passed through the solid object and he found himself standing in the outer rim of the living room. He observed the surroundings the living room offered, seeing a television, coffee table, couch and a small bookcase. There was a window opened partially, permitting some light and a fresh breeze to allow the air freshener Mr. Preston used to circulate properly through the apartment. As far as he could see so far, everything seemed so unassuming. It didn't seem to be like a nest of evil for the organic Decepticon agents.

Soundlessly, he walked along, carefully perusing his environment and on the lookout for anything that stuck out as unusual or curious. Nothing really stood out before him. The only thing he noticed that seemed odd was that one side of the couch seemed to be far more worn down and sunken in than the other half of that particular piece of furniture. Prowl stood in front of the couch and studied the faint impression it left, privately noting to himself how it differed from the other half.

"_Looks like a rather large Human might've been sitting here for awhile,_" he thought. "_But as far as I know, these siblings aren't big… Odd._"

The immaterial and cleverly disguised organic mimic titled his head up and spotted the doorway that separated the living room from the kitchen. Prowl walked around the couch, making his way into the kitchen. Right away, he noticed that this room seemed to be in a state of disarray and chaos. There were a few tupperware containers, dirty plates, partially consumed bags of snacks and potato chips all placed on a counter. He scowled in disgust at the mess, disbelieving that they would leave such a disaster behind. Prowl had realized that they must've left in a hurry and not had much time to clean up the mess they created; either that or they were a lazy trio of organics.

"_It wouldn't hurt to poke around here either…_"

He carefully began to open up the kitchen cabinets, on the hunt for clues of any kind. So far, all he could find was kitchenware, china, utensils and some food. Nothing of great importance seemed to stick out to him. Prowl didn't even really have an idea of what sort of clues he was looking for exactly but what he did know was to be vigilant of any sort of item that would help link the siblings with the Decepticons that they served. As far as he could tell, he was just rummaging through some Humans' unimpressive cupboards and intruding in their home.

Prowl then walked over to the kitchen sink. He knelt down and opened up the doors that concealed the bottom of the sink. Upon doing that, he was immediately met with an assortment of bottles of oil. There were a few different kinds and it seemed like some of them were half empty. A few of them looked like they were partially crushed as well, almost as if someone was holding them with an overtly powerful grip. He grabbed one of the bottles and held it up to his visor closely in order to investigate it for even the subtlest clue.

"All these bottles of oil seem so unnecessary," he grumbled to himself. "What would Humans do with this collection? And why does it look like a lot of them are half empty? Well, this is the first good clue of sorts I've discovered."

Placing the bottled down in the exact same spot as he picked it up from, Prowl stood back up and shut the doors. He'd be sure to set anything he picked up to examine back into its original place so he wouldn't alert to the residents that someone had been snooping around inside their home. Prowl already had neglected in telling his fellow Autobots of what he going to do today and he certainly had no desire to let the suspected enemies know that he was onto them.

Briefly, he looked through the kitchen again to make sure he didn't miss anything else that might prove beneficial to his investigation. After a minute or two of this, he exited the kitchen with the intentions to look through the remaining portion of the apartment. Before he entered the kitchen, he noticed a hallway that went further back into the apartment, where the sibling's bedrooms and the bathroom was located but now that he was finished with the kitchen, he decided to go down the hall.

The hallway was darker than the living room and kitchen since there were no windows that allowed warm sunlight to funnel through. However, Prowl didn't have to deal with this tiny issue for long as he could see light coming in from the bedroom windows. He could even hear someone's curtains ruffle lightly as a little gust of wind stirred them. For now, he decided to check the bedrooms and come over to the bathroom after he had done that.

Something had caught Prowl's attention as he moved further down the hallway and came closer to the bedrooms. It was something that had not physically moved or something he had heard. Instead, it was a chemical and airborne signature that he had detected. Although it was mixed in with the smell of the air freshener that was sprayed earlier, the ninja bot could still get a hint of it. The odd signal was wafting from one of the bedrooms.

Even though a Cybertronian's holoform was an extremely sophisticated illusion of light and matter that could easily fool the native population, the disguise also incorporated the conscious of the user. They could talk, walk and think in this disguise but it was the main body that controlled it. Although the body would go into a light stasis lock of sorts when the holoform was projected, the disguise could actually scan surroundings and perform some other operations that its original body could (but not to its fullest degree and potential). Unlike its larger body, the holoform could not be killed or die since it had no spark however, if something should happen to the body, the illusion would dissipate the user would come online again fully.

His scanners activated and he entered the bedroom from where the "scent" was the most overpowering. Prowl didn't even bother to observe his surroundings and he continued to analyze the signature. Over the past few days it had degraded in potency and it was marred by the aerosol but he could still determine its exact composition and origin.

When he took a few more moments to process whatever was in the air, he was completely and utterly shocked. He had no idea that this signature would even be in the airspace. The holoform only stood in astonishment and disbelief. The signature was completely Cybertronian in origin.

To be specific, he detected mating pheromones. There were a few different types of these signatures that varied on the types of Cybertronians but this one stuck out to Prowl. To be specific, what he discovered was a seeker pheromone. From that he had deduced that somehow, there most certainly was a Decepticon in this person's room. To make it all the more disturbing and interesting, this Decepticon was very much in love with someone.

Prowl was absolutely flabbergasted. There was no possible way that a Decepticon could even fit inside this person's room. Although they could indirectly do it with the use of a holoform like he had done, there was no way the holoform could be releasing the pheromones into the air. He had no idea how exactly it was done but somehow, one of them managed to get into the room. He was also very sure that his scanners were not faulty or malfunctioning. Why else would he be able to detect the airborne chemical anyway?

"How…how can this be?" he questioned himself out loud. "This can't be possible, can it?"

He began to feel a little uncomfortable and uneasy being in the bedroom for as long as he remained standing in the middle of it. Judging by the level of the pheromones in the air, the Decepticon must've been occupying this room for awhile and only stopped frequenting it recently. More than anything else, he felt as if he was invading a strange nest of sorts. The ninja bot just hoped that if the Decepticon who was in here wouldn't be able to detect that he was in the room if they would return. He'd only stay in there for a little while longer and move along.

This little private investigation he was conducting had failed to provide any definite answers. More than anything else, it gave him more questions to sort through and find an explanation for. The pheromones he found just made the puzzle all the more complex and intriguing. Just a few mere minutes earlier, he was dealing with the possibility of three Human spies. Now, he was dealing with the reality of a seeker being in love with someone. That also just made the situation he was dealing with all the more potentially dangerous. He didn't know much about their physiology and mechanisms, but he had heard rumors that they were extremely jealous and protective of their love interests.

Despite his significant discovery, he decided to poke around the room more to see if there was anything else he could find. Although he already made a prominent find, he was confident that perhaps he could find something else that could help him catch the attention of his fellow Autobots and convince them to take full action against these wily spies. To the black and gold motorcycle, the Decepticon pheromones alone provided more than enough evidence that the suspected Humans were connected to them.

Prowl slowly walked through the bedroom, making his way to the occupant's dresser. Once he got closer, he could see what looked like a piece of paper on top of it. Grabbing it, he saw that it was receipt. He read it, seeing that it was a receipt from an autopart store. Specifically, the customer had bought a few bottles of oil and as he read the name of the oil, he recognized it as being the same brand names he spotted under the sink. Towards the bottom of the receipt, he could see a signature written there. To him, he didn't quite understand the importance of these and most of the time it looked like scribbled nonsense to him. But below the signature, he could see a name in print. The customer's name was Cynthia Preston.

Gingerly, Prowl set the receipt back down on the dresser. He looked around the whole room, wondering what exactly had been going on. Somehow, a Decepticon managed to enter the siblings' home and possibly reside there for a little while. It also appeared that the villainous Cybertronian was in love. With who it was exactly, Prowl wasn't very sure but he was sure that he'd figure it out sooner or later.

"_How can one of those brutes be in love?_" Prowl inquired quietly. "_How does that happen? Aren't they incapable of it? There aren't too many Decepticons who bond anyway. I don't think a lot of them believe in it. It's just even more interesting now since it might be one of the main four we have to deal with… I just can't see any of them in this residence. How could they even get in to begin with?_" He shook his head in confusion. "_It doesn't matter. I'll tell Optimus and the others what I found and we'll find out more answers later on. I know Optimus might be a little mad at me for doing this without his approval but I'm sure he'll be thrilled with what I found out. If he does have a problem with it, it won't stop me from investigating further._"

(Daufuskie Island – 1:30pm)

Darien didn't even want to look at Blitzwing. He was utterly disgusted with what he had witnessed and heard earlier and he had no desire to even look at him. Cynthia had asked him to be his sole companion for awhile until she felt like she composed herself a little more. The boy had agreed to do this because he didn't want any more stress to weigh in on his sister than what she was dealt with earlier.

While his parents and sisters had picked out their little spot on the beach and laid down their towels, he and Blitzwing decided to go for a walk. Mrs. Preston seemed disappointed when they told her this but she reluctantly let them go. Apparently, she was still interested in her daughter's lover and wanted to enjoy his company for a bit. Darien noted that his father didn't say anything but kept his eyes on them as if he was studying them. The youngest Preston was pretty sure this was the case and he was confident he was going to be pressed into fifty-questioning by Robert.

"Darien, please…" Blitzwing's voice had returned to normal and one could tell which personality was speaking now. He was still plagued with pain with where he had been struck by Cynthia's foot. "Can jou try to talk to her or somezhing? I know she vill not vant to even talk to me for ze rest of ze day…"

"To be honest, I don't even want to talk to you," Darien said rudely and shot an unfriendly stare at him. "You broke Cyndi's heart and I'm not going to forgive you easily either. Those were my sister's feelings you hurt."

"I know and it's my fault, I von't lie or try to hide zat! I tried telling her zat earlier too!"

"I wouldn't listen either so I can understand why she did what she did!" Darien turned away from him, not wishing to maintain eye contact with him. "You're so lucky that she didn't decide to tell my mom and dad about what you did. They'd throw you out of the house and force you to get back to Detroit on your own. I'm not happy you're still here with us too but I don't have a choice. I'm not helping you either. You made this mess so you can clean it up by yourself."

Blitzwing's anger and impatience was steadily growing. With the way Darien was acting with him, he wanted to punch him in the face more than anything else. But he knew things would only get worse if he laid a harmful hand on the boy. Blitzwing knew Darien had a perfect reason to treat him this way but it frustrated him that he was not receiving at least some pity and sympathy since he had voiced his regret and wish to make amends with Cynthia.

"Jou know, I could be very cruel and vent on my vay vith zhose femmes," Icy sneered at him.

"Yeah, you almost did!" Darien raised his voice and faced him again despite not wanting to look at him any longer. "You know, I thought you were cool and decent for a Decepticon but you're not. I take back what I said about you marrying my sister too…you're not worth her breathing space."

The larger male growled deeply at his words.

"Fine, if jou don't vant to believe my vords, zhen so be it!" Hothead yelled. "I'm not going to let jou bring me down, jou skinny little punk!"

"And I'm not afraid of you, you mentally handicapped womanizer!"

"Oh-ho, if I could punch jou right now, I vould." He smirked wickedly.

"I can kick you in your groin before you could even lay a hand on me." It was Darien's turn to wear the competitive facial expression. He was wearing an arrogant smile. "That'd just work for me especially if you remain a Human for the rest of your life. Maybe I'll kick you in the groin everyday I see you."

"Jou better pray zat I never get my old body back!"

"Or what?"

"Keep pushing me, little man…"

"You can't touch me, bro."

"Don't call me 'bro'! If jou veren't Cynzhia's brozher, I vould've strangled jou so hard I snapped jour frail neck!"

"You couldn't snap a Pixie Stick, you wimp."

"Darien, I am varning jou right now…" Icy said in a low tone. "I am in no mood for zis. I already have a few problems to deal vith now and I don't need jou adding to zat list. I vant to solve zhose issues, not accumulate zem."

He didn't know what it was exactly but the grimness in his voice struck a chord in him. Darien had seen the stoic personality become irked and act sternly before but he had never heard Icy speak with such swelling fury in his voice. To a certain extent, it actually startled him and made him seriously rethink taunting him. Usually, when he'd become angry, Hothead would take command. He had no desire to see what would happen if Icy became so furious that even the belligerent red face didn't take control. If he was wearing an indestructible suit of armor that would guarantee him protection from being torn to pieces by Blitzwing, maybe he'd continue with the teasing. However, he had no sort of protection so Darien decided to back off for the moment.

"Fine," he said, clearing his throat. "But you're not going to win my sister back, Mandy will hate you even more and you will never get my respect again."

Blitzwing chose to not reply to Darien's biting and cold words. They stung him a little bit, particularly when the boy stated that Cynthia would never be his again. He ignored Darien's forbidding statement and told himself inwardly that he would prove him wrong. What really mattered most was winning his love back.

"Jou can go back to everyone else if jou vant to," he said. "I know jou are disgusted vith me and hate me right now."

"Well, my sister kinda made me stay with you so maybe I should," Darien said begrudgingly. "Everyone will just ask where you are anyway if I go back alone."

"Darien, I vant jou to know somezhing."

The seventeen year old rolled his eyes and sighed. He paused for a few moments but then looked at Blitzwing again.

"What?" he said in an annoyed tone.

"Alzhough zhings vill be extremely difficult between us for a bit, I just vanted to let jou know zat zis also changes nozhing," Blitzwing said. "I must admit I have taken a liking to jou and Amanda over time. Jou also have no ozher friends amongst the Decepticons besides myself and Lockdown so I vill still take ze liberty of safeguarding jou if ze situation calls for it. Jou vill still probably hate me and zat's fine. Jou're entitled to hate me for vhat I did earlier."

"It depends if you ever get your old body back too. You might be stuck like this forever."

"It's possible. But in ze event zat I regain my old body back, I just vant jou to know zat."

"That would be the perfect revenge too. You'd be stuck as a Human forever."

Blitzwing looked away from Darien, ignoring his comment. He turned his back on the young Human and resumed his walk down the beach. Now he was wondering if it would've been better if he perhaps was kicked out of the house and forced to make a very long and difficult trip to Detroit on his own. At least if that was the case, perhaps he'd be able to hatch a plan of some sort to get Cynthia back. As long as this estrangement was going on, an emotion that he hadn't felt in a long time was revisiting him once again; sadness.

"Just go, Darien," he urged. "I vant to be left alone for little vhile."

Darien was more than happy to oblige. He was becoming weary of enduring his presence anyway. Without saying another word, he went in the opposite direction that Blitzwing was travelling. Silently, Blitzwing pressed on. The only good thing about this walk was that he liked the way the warm sand felt against the soles of his feet. The wind was constantly blowing and ruffling his hair which annoyed him. His mood became heavier and more somber with each step he made, separating himself from the side of his beloved Human.

He didn't want to admit it to anyone and not even to himself but he was heartbroken. For as long as he was forced to face this reality, it stung him. Ever since he first joined Megatron's cause and became molded into a Decepticon, he was taught to never regret anything and move on. But Blitzwing couldn't help to not feel remorse eat away at his psyche as a result of his lust and impatience. Without a doubt, he knew that Megatron and his fellow Decepticons would frown upon him for displaying and feeling such weakness, but the triple changer couldn't avoid it. For the first time, in a long time, he regretted something that he had done to another living being.

Meditatively, he looked over the Atlantic Ocean as he slowly walked along the shore. He could spy upon a small pod of dolphins making a brief appearance as their fins broke the surface. Some seagulls screeched loudly overhead, mixing in with the sound of the wind blowing. The dry beach grass that grew on the sand dunes rustled and swayed as long as the breeze persisted. An occasional crab scuttled across the sand as he walked down the beach, moving out of his way and retreating to the laping waves. Everything around him seemed so carefree, light and happy. It was a stark contrast to what he was feeling at the moment.

Even though that all sorts of life and activity was going on around him, he still felt painfully lonely and dejected. The longer it was becoming more blatant to him, his eyes seemed like they were burning. Angrily, he wiped away the excess moisture forming, forbidding himself from shedding a few tears. There was no room for crying, especially for a Decepticon warrior. They were supposed to be ruthless, callous, deadly, strong, cunning, guiltless and masculine. They weren't supposed to feel regret for hurting someone's feelings, even if that someone was their femme. They especially weren't supposed to be leaking coolant from their optics the longer they thought about it and the longer it went about unresolved.

"_I'm supposed to be smarter zhan zis…_" Icy said to himself. "_I acted like a rude, inconsiderate and selfish animal back zhere. I hurt her so much and I should've foreseen it earlier. But no, I had to be distracted and tempted by zhose zhree glitches. She put up vith me and accepted me for who I vas and still remained loyal to me. To repay her, all I did vas betray her trust and break her heart. And I called her ugly and unpleasant… I may never vin Cynzhia back because of vhat I had done. Perhaps it vould be for ze greater good if she didn't forgive me and take me back. I vas so confident zat I vas ze perfect mech for her; I vould be ze one for her and she vould never vant to leave me. She vould alvays love me and I her… I vas going to remain vith her until she died. I vas prepared to do zat for her. Zis also hurts far more zhan any ozher rejection a femme put me zhrough… If I didn't screw up and if a few more stellar cycles passed and ve still loved each ozher as deeply as ve do now, I vould've asked her to become my mate… I couldn't merge my spark vith hers since she is Human but I'd find a vay for us to become a bonded pair. Zat's not going to happen now._"

"_Ve vould be a mated pair but ve vould have no sparklings eizher…_" Random's tone sounded forlorn and sorrowful. "_Ve vouldn't be able to have any since ve're not ze same species. I vould've loved to become a daddy and have younglings of my own too…_" A little bud of happiness dared to bloom in his heart as he imagined himself teaching a sparkling that looked a lot like him to fly. A small yet noticeable smirk even formed on his face as he envisioned that same young Cybertronian curled up contently underneath his wingstruts for a stasis nap while their father lain down on his belly and joined them for the little snooze. "_Zat's ze one zhing I vould not be happy vith if Cyndi and I stayed togezher…_"

Hothead could barely comment. More than anything else, he was mad at himself for what he had done. So far, all he could do was manage to stew in loathing and self-pity. The boisterous persona also didn't want to reveal too much about what he thought, feeling as if it was tarnishing his being and image. Like the other two, he was equally hurt and downtrodden.

"Well, you certainly screwed this up this time, didn't you?" a gruff yet very familiar voice spoke.

Blitzwing nearly leapt out of his fleshy prison in shock. He immediately knew who this person was but he couldn't see him anywhere.

"Don't scare me like zat, I already have enough zhings to deal vith right now!" Hothead said angrily.

"I'm over here behind this sand dune," the bounty hunter hinted. "I kinda can't be seen. Only golfcarts and maintanence vehicles are allowed on this island and I'm sure a lot of folks would be suspicious to see a character like me zooming down the roads."

Blitzwing followed the direction from where Lockdown's voice emanated from. He scaled a dune and looked down, seeing the green and black muscle car hidden beneath some palm branches, sea grass and other miscellaneous flora. The Humanized Decepticon sat down on the sand, facing Lockdown.

"And great, I guess jou know vhat happened earlier…" he bitterly concluded.

"That I do," Lockdown confirmed. "I saw the whole thing actually. I thought you had more class than that, Blitzwing. Didn't see that coming at all, really."

"To ze Pit with jou, jou vorthless bounty-hunting scum!"

"Me? Worthless?" Lockdown laughed heartily and transformed into his robot mode. He hunched down amongst the foliage to make sure no one except Blitzwing could see him. "That takes a lot of guts for you to say, considering Cynthia put you in your place and scored a nice hit on your nuts and bolts."

"Don't remind me! Zis body is supposed to be stronger zhan ze average puny Human man's too!"

"Maybe Knock Out's analysis has been wrong then which doesn't surprise me all that much."

"Lockdown, I made a huge mistake!" Random bemoaned. "I need to make it right again or I vill lose her forever!"

"She has every right to not take you back for what you've done to her. If she doesn't want to forgive you and make you hers again, then that's her choice and you'll have to deal with it. I'm sure you'll move on anyway. You ever tried to hook up with Blackarachnia? She looks like she could use a hug."

Blitzwing balefully glared at the bounty hunter. His face contorted into an angry frown, hinting that Random had been replaced.

"Yeah, I tried zat a zhousand stellar cycles ago and she stepped all over my feelings and spark!" Hothead yelled. "She can hug herself for all I care! I don't zhink anyone vill be able to figure out vhat her problem is! And I'm not ready to let go of Cynzhia! I messed up and vant a second chance! I vill make sure I never mess up like zat again!"

"Well, I don't think she's going to take you back right this instant considering she dumped you no more than an hour ago," said Lockdown. "This is your problem and you have to figure out how to do win her back on your own. All I'm going to do is just sit back and watch."

"Jou broke Mandy's heart."

Lockdown's optics widened when Blitzwing uttered that sentence. It came out of nowhere and it startled him. At first, he didn't know how to react and all he could really do was stare back at him.

"She told me everyzhing," Icy continued. "So it appears zat ze both of us are on vhat Humans call a 'shit list'. I vould figure zat jou vould sympazhise vith me and try to at least get on the good side of our Human compatriots."

"I could care less," the black and green robot hissed. "I told her the truth and I wasn't going to lie and say 'yes' only to cause more grief for us later down the road. I don't love her and if she wants to act all overly dramatic and 'woe is me' then whatever. I don't have time for that slag. I'm her guardian, not her boyfriend. As for Cyndi, just drop it. I'm getting fed up already with your mindless babbling about her. You wanted to leave with those three femmes so you could get a release and she caught you. Blitzwing, this is entirely your fault, end of story."

"Lockdown, I love her. I vas in love vith a few different femmes before but some rejected me and ozhers ended up terminating our relationship after a mere few solar cycles for one reason or anozher. I vas stung by zhose failures but vhat I'm feeling now…" He refused to be choked up before Lockdown. "She returned ze love to me. She cared for me vhen I needed shelter and vhen I vas ill and she accepted me for who I vas and she's a Human! Ve vere meant to be enemies but ve loved each ozher despite zhose differences. She didn't try to run avay or abandon me vhen Megatron discovered us. She also remained vith me longer zhan any ozher femme did. It vasn't until I realized I screwed up how much she meant to me. I ruined our potential future and I vant to fix it and vin her back. Zis femme is vorth it." He sighed heavily. "She may not accept me back but I vill try to do everyzhing I can to change her mind and forgive me. If she doesn't, zhen I vill accept defeat and cope vith my loss."

In all honesty, the heartfelt confession was amusing to Lockdown. Even before Blitzwing came clean with his feelings for Cynthia, he had always suspected the triple changer had a little crush on her, even when he met them together in the Steel Star. As far as he could recall, he never saw a Decepticon who was this lovesick and desperate to win back the object of his affections. He almost wanted to pity Blitzwing and the conflict he was embroiled in. Lockdown was quite good at telling when others were bluffing or lying and he could tell that the triple changer was truly remorseful of what he had allowed to happen. There wasn't an ounce of deceit in his voice from what he could hear and that made him feel a little more empathetic towards him.

"Maybe there is some hope for you after all, you hopeless romantic," Lockdown smirked. "I can tell that there is honesty in your words, Blitzwing. If you're as truthful to her as you were with me a cycle ago, she may take you back and forgive you for what you did. Now, as I'm sure you know, what you did was not a very smart thing so I think she'll be pretty mad at you for a little while. I suggest you give her the space she needs so she can cool off and when she settles a little, then try to talk to her again."

"Yes, I don't vant to be curled up on ze floor again as I'm holding myself," Blitzwing agreed. "I never hated Human biology more zhan at zat moment. It's completely unsafe and foolish to be structured zat vay outside of ze body." He stood up onto his fleshy feet. "I vill move on now. Cynzhia's parents don't know about vhat happened and zhey zhink she and I are still on good terms. Zhey vill be concerned if ve are separated for too long."

"Good thinking. I'll be following you around as usual and if it does get bad enough then I guess I'll take you back to Detroit."

"Hopefully it doesn't come to zat. Zhank jou, Lockdown. I appreciate jour advice and jour confidence in me. Zis vill be difficult but I'm resolved to rewrite zis into a happy ending."

(…)

Although her anger and bitterness towards him was still reigning supreme, Cynthia also felt a little anxious and maybe even worried about his absence. Darien had returned without him and gave a rather terse reply as to where Johann was. All he had said was that his friend decided to take a long walk. There was an ominous tone in his voice and Cyndi was not sitting very comfortably with that. She highly doubted her brother could overpower Blitzwing, let alone even kill him. It also didn't appear that Darien had been engaged in a struggle very recently unless if he had caught him by surprise and dragged him into the salty water for a makeshift yet effective burial.

She refused to acknowledge it but she believed that a part of her was still very much in love with him which was why she felt this concern. However, she refused to consider it fully and justified her anxieties as fearing what Megatron and Starscream would do if she returned without Blitzwing. There was no doubt in her mind that she was going to be killed in an extremely painful and gruesome manner. That was something she didn't want to gamble with and possibly manifest into a reality.

"This is getting a little worrisome," Helen said. She sat up and took her sunglasses off, facing her eldest child. "Cynthia, perhaps we should go off and look for Johann. I'm a little concerned about him to be honest."

"He's a strapping, large, strong fellow," Robert duly noted. The lawyer had his attention devoted to the book he was reading. "He should be fine. I don't think anything bad happened to him. With as loud as he can be, I'm sure we would've heard some commotion by now."

"Oh, Robert, stop being such a stick in the mud! He's a potential son-in-law!"

Mr. Preston only scoffed very loudly and chuckled to himself. He resumed his readings and showed no further interest. His wife refused to remain inactive on the other hand.

"Darien, you shouldn't have let him go off by himself," she lightly scolded her son.

Darien only shrugged apathetically. Like his father, he could care less about what happened to him.

"He told me to head back said he wanted to go on a long walk," he said. "I'm sure he'll be back sooner or later."

"Mandy, will you join us in finding him?" Helen asked her second daughter.

"Nope," the blonde replied shortly. "I have to finish charbroiling my other side of my body since it is burnt."

"Cyndi, come on." Helen rose up from her towel and took a few steps over to where her child sat. "Let's go look for Johann and bring him back."

She saw it was in her best interest to go. Wordlessly, Cynthia got up and joined her mother. The duo walked side by side and walked down the beach.

"Honey, are you okay?" Helen asked her daughter. "You've seemed very quiet ever since we left the cabana. Your brother and sister seem to be acting weirdly too. Did something happen there?"

She was in no mood to discuss with her mother what happened. Her parents weren't supposed to know about it either. Blitzwing needed to come back to Detroit with them safe and sound. Cynthia had every intention with keeping her promise and duty to the two Decepticon leaders.

"I'm alright," the young woman lied. "I had a rough time trying to sleep last night is all."

"Was the bed too hard?" Helen pressed on. She was keen on trying to figure out what Cynthia's problem was and fix it. "Your father and I could trade rooms with you and Johann if you want."

"No, don't worry. The bed wasn't hard or anything. I just had a hard time sleeping, that's all. New environment I guess."

"Are you sure? I'm surprised you didn't want to go off with him and your brother earlier. You two were so attached to each other up until a little bit ago."

"We want to give each other some space is all. We usually are very close to each other and by one another's side but I don't mind if he wants to go for a walk by himself if he wants to." Cynthia broke eye contact with her mother. "We get a little break from each other that way."

Helen smiled warmly. She placed a hand on Cynthia's shoulder, patting her there.

"I've seen the way he looks at you and acts around you, honey," she said. "I can't see him getting sick of you easily."

"Mom, are you just blowing sunshine up my butt?" she exhaled heavily.

"Of course not!" Helen removed her hand from her daughter's shoulder. "Why would I do that? I'm telling the truth is all. I've seen it with my own eyes. I just wish you told me about him much earlier! You should've even brought him back home to Greenvale for Easter so we could get better acquainted with him!"

The way Helen was showering praise upon Blitzwing's doting devotion and dutifulness weighed down on Cynthia's heart. She too had thought he was this loyal and steadfast but she got a rude wake up call about that earlier. There was no way she was going to tell her parents about what happened but it was hard to disguise her woe and heartache as long as her mother kept insisting that he was such a softhearted and adorably clingy boyfriend. All she could do was tune out the elder female's testimonies and try to empty her mind of the man who had once filled her being with happiness and soothing warmth.

Turning her gaze upwards, Cyndi looked further down the beach to find the missing man that had caused her so much grief. Off to her left she spotted the hunched over figure of a person. They were kneeling down in the sand with their head tilted downwards as if they were studying something. The waves were lapping around their form and rushed past them as the tide halted a few feet behind them. As she got closer, she could see it was the figure of a man. The closer she got to him, Cyndi could see it was none other than the Decepticon imprisoned within his Human shell.

"Oh, there he is!" Helen exclaimed.

Cynthia had spotted him before Helen did but she had hoped that it would be her mother who would announce the finding. She had no desire to talk to him or even look at him. The longer she looked at him, she felt more sorrowful than rageful. Her heart felt as if it was being squeezed by an invisible hand within her ribcage and her eyes felt the all too familiar burning sting of incoming tears.

Blitzwing easily picked up Helen's voice amidst the pounding of the waves and the blowing wind. He grabbed hold of the tiny object he had found in the sand, plucking it from the wet sand before the sea could seek to reclaim it for eternity. Then he stood up onto his feet and he jogged over to join the two women.

"We were wondering if you fell off the face of the Earth!" Helen smiled largely at him. Blitzwing stopped in his tracks when he was just a mere foot away from the both of them. "Good to see you're alright. We were starting to worry about you."

"I zhank jou for jour kind concern, Mrs. Preston," Icy said amicably and politely, "but as jou can see, I'm alright. I vas just valking around and admiring ze beauty of zis island vas all." His ruby colored eyes then looked upon the face of his beloved. There was a small, gentle smile on his face. "And vhile I vas making my vay back to join jou and ze ozhers, I happened upon zis little oceanic gem."

He raised his right hand to show Helen and Cynthia what he had been observing and snatched up from the surf moments before. His hand opened up, revealing the top half of a bivalve that was a little larger than a quarter. It was primarly colored a creamy white and along the outer fringes of the shell, there was a dark orange-brown band that spanned across it horizontally. Located directly on the hinge of the shell, there was a tiny hole that allowed the discarded husk to easily become a necklace or a bracelet.

"I zhought zat maybe jou vould like it, Cyndi," he said. "It's small, delicate and beautiful."

"Oh, what a wonderful, romantic little gift!" Helen loudly gushed. She seemed to be acting as if she was the one whom the seashell was to be entrusted to. "How gorgeous… You know, it reminds me of when your father gave me those wonderful pearl earrings on our first anniversary…" Some of her gusto then died down. "And then I lost them whenever we went to that trip to Niagra Falls ten years ago. Oh, he was so mad at me…"

Cynthia could only stare at the shell. She was not expecting this little gift to be suddenly bestowed upon her. She had to admit, it was a pretty yet quaint little shell and her first reaction would've been to kiss him on his lips and accept it. Yet she was also wary of her present, wary of his true intentions. In her gut, she knew it was a ploy of his to try to win her back. There was no way she was going to yield to him so easily and allow herself to be charmed into forgiving him with little trinkets.

"Yeah…" she said lowly. She faked a smile and reluctantly looked into his eyes. "It's really beautiful."

"Zhen it is jours, Cyndi," he said.

Although she threatened him with pain and suffering if he touched her, he tenderly grabbed her hand. He then deposited the seashell into the palm of her hand. His hand then supported hers as his rested beneath.

"I zhink it vould be nice to utilize it for jewelry," Blitzwing suggested. "If jou ask me, it's too beautiful for it to remain on a dusty dresser top. It vould be much more suitable if it hung around ze neck of an even more beautiful voman."

The smile on his face was one of confidence. It wasn't an arrogant, ugly and grating smirk but one that seemed hopeful and eager. With the way he was choosing his words, it seemed as if they would be coming out of a prideful and haughty mouth but that wasn't the case. His tone was casual yet it had a hint of admiration and sincerity too. In Cynthia's eyes, he was kissing up to her. She also had to admit he was doing a good job of acting humble at the same time.

"You really shouldn't have," she said this time in a louder voice. "You flatter me."

He didn't retort to her statement. All she was capable of doing was looking back at his face. A part of Cynthia screamed at her, commanding her to jump into his arms and forgive him. She wanted this to end. But she feared that beneath this sweet display, his devilish and lustful side lurked and waited to reemerge and break her heart for the second time if she so easily pardoned him. Though she was hurt and angry at him, she saw she did indeed still love him. Falling out of love with him was not as instantaneous as she thought it was going to be. In fact, it was going to be far more difficult and painful than what she thought it was going to be. That reality was becoming more painfully obvious as long as she stared back at him.

Silently, she mouthed "no" to him.


	55. Come Undone

**Thanks for the fave/follows. Not much to say really than other than hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter and it won't be as bad as the last one. **

Chapter 55 _Come Undone_

(Daufuskie Island – 11:30pm)

Once they were alone together, Blitzwing had half expected Cynthia to finish what she had started. Mentally, he prepared himself for any verbal lashings and possible kicks that she had in store for him. He almost hoped that she would approach him first about the issue because he was hesitant to do so at this time. Though the triple changer had some confidence when Helen and the rest of the family members were with them, that strength had all but evaporated now. Now, there was no longer a need to maintain the charade. He knew how angry and hurt she was by his betrayal and he was expecting her to do something. Instead, she was lying on the bed and ignoring him completely. That was something Blitzwing had actually preferred to not happen.

Cyndi was lying on her side of the bed with her back facing him. Grudgingly, she was more than aware of his presence. A part of her wanted to continue displaying her hatred and ire towards him but another part of her was so subduded and watered down by her sorrow that she chose to ignore him. The woman settled herself on the very edge of her bedside, wanting to be as far away from him as possible. Her bluish gray eyes momentarily drifted over to her nightstand, seeing the seashell that he gave her earlier that day. Some tears sprung up but she suppressed them as best as she could, since she did not want him to know she was hurting.

Cautiously, he seated himself on the available bedside. The bed creaked and groaned a little beneath his weight and he cringed, hoping that Cyndi would not feel or hear his approach. When she did not react or stir to this, he was subtly encouraged to try to speak to her. He was so anxious and guilty about the fight that he was physically ill. All he wanted was to have her forgive him and come back.

Then he froze up when he saw Cynthia move her arm towards the lamp that sat on the nightstand. She turned it off and the room instantly dimmed. The only light that was visible now was the tiny nightlight in their bathroom and a stray beam of moonlight that managed to wiggle its way past the curtains. Again, she stirred, moving her body underneath the covers and then she stopped a few seconds later. After that, silence prevailed between the two of them once more.

"_I can't do zis anymore,_" Icy said to himself. "_I have to try to talk to her. I feel as if I'm going to purge my fuel tank if don't try to make amends vith her. I have to do zis… Ve're both suffering because of my urges. I need to end it._"

Neither Hothead nor Random said anything back. They remained uneasily quiet within his head. The two more outgoing personalities were as nervous as he was about the matter. He sighed internally upon realizing that they most likely would not be participating in talking for the rest of the night. The calmer persona almost hoped that they would take turns in talking to her.

Swallowing hard, Blitzwing inched closer to her. He cleared his throat and hoped she wouldn't end up tearing his larynx out in midsentence.

"Cynzhia?" he made sure he sounded clear and serious but not confrontational.

There was no reply received from her. The room was so silent that he could've sworn he heard his heart beating. He wet his lips and decided to wait a few more seconds before attempting again.

Before he could part his mouth to speak once more, he heard her sniffling and attempting to stifle her cries. His instincts to comfort and console his woman controlled him and he ignored the threats of bodily harm she warned him of earlier if he touched her and he scooted over to her side. Gingerly, he set a hand on her shoulder and huddled closer to her.

"Leave me alone!" Cyndi tried to sound stern and commanding but her whimpering and sobbing didn't help. "Get your disgusting hands off me..!"

"Cyndi, please," he urged. He hushed his voice so that her family members would not hear any commotion. "I cannot stand to see jou like zis… I am so sorry zat I hurt jou and more zhan anyzhing else, I vant jou to forgive me."

"I'll never forgive you! Go to Hell!"

"Sveetspark, please! Zis is hurting me as much as it is hurting jou… I love jou, Cynzhia!"

"How could you love an ugly and unpleasant woman like me then? You should've went off with those girls like you wanted to. You even said they were more beautiful than I am…" There was no restraint on the tears now. "Just shut your mouth and go to sleep! You have no idea how hard it is for me to be in this bed with you!"

"No, zat's not true." He shook his head stubbornly. "I vas angry and very frustrated and zat's vhy I said zat. I von't deny zat I said zhose horrible zhings to jou but zhey vere not true. I am disgusted vith myself for saying zhose zhings too and if I could travel back in time to fix it, I vould do it vithout a second zhought."

"Please, I want to be left alone. I don't want to talk to you and I am so very close to ripping your hand off and shoving it up your ass…"

The imagery in his head was not pleasant to say the least when Blitzwing imagined that scenario. Internally, he suddered at that thought and he wondered if she actually had the power to do such a thing to him. But he chose to not heed her threats and he didn't remove his hand.

"I vill say 'I love jou' as many times as necessary to convince jou it is ze truzh," he said. "I vill also tell jou 'jou are beautiful' until jou believe zat as vell."

"Right now, there is nothing that you can say to make me feel better," she uttered. There was such coldness in her voice that he thought he was speaking to another woman. "And don't worry about planting an entire field of yellow lilies for me either because I will bulldoze them over. You failed miserably and you are not going to be forgiven for your own stupidity." At last, she turned over to face him. "I think I get why Blackarachnia never accepted your love too… You're a hopeless and pitiable screw-up. To me, it sounds like the woman was far wiser than I was in choosing you."

He decided to quit for the day after she finished speaking. Now she was just being spiteful and cruel. Blitzwing tried to maintain a stony expression but her words did hurt him a great deal. His anger was swelling as she rejected his truthful words and slandered his worth as a living thing. At last, Hothead was fighting violently for control but Icy restrained him, not wanting to fight fire with fire. He believed the wisest thing to do for now was to let her vent her anger and cool off some more.

His hand drew away from her shoulder and he lain down on his respective side of the bed. He reclined on his back, choosing to not turn his back on her as she did to him. Even in the darkened conditions, he could still see the back of her head clearly.

"Goodnight," he said, trying to restrain himself from talking back in a smarmy tone.

"Yeah, I'll try," was her brief answer.

Blitzwing exhaled heavily and shut his eyes. Chances were that the both of them were going to have a hard time sleeping that night.

(the next day, Detroit – 10:30am)

Prowl had no desire nor did he have the patience to wait any longer. He had already rehearsed to himself what he was going to be informing his fellow Autobots about what evidence he was going to present to them. Though he had no physical evidence to show them, he felt that the veracity of his words and testament would be enough to convince and prompt them to action. With each cycle that went by and the longer he withheld the information from them, the more impatient and restless he felt. The ninja-bot was even becoming irked that for as long as the matter would not be brought before his comrades, the Human traitors would continue to serve their Decepticon masters.

On silent stabilizing servos, Prowl walked at a brisk and hurried pace. He entered the base's living room, spotting the four Cybertronians he called his teammates and their organic charge all convened in that area. More than anything else, he was thankful that they were already together and he could begin right away without calling the others back if they had went their own ways earlier. Not only that, he preferred that everyone would hear what he had to say so that they could be on the lookout for the three suspicious siblings.

_"If by some chance they chastise or scold me for going against Optimus' orders to wait despite what I've discovered, it still won't stop me," _the gold and black Autobot told himself. _"If indeed they are aiding the Decepticons, which I believe they are, they must be prosecuted and removed from their service before they could be used against us or the citizens of this city…"_

Bumblebee managed to pick up on the sound of Prowl approaching from behind. He turned his helm to the side and locked optics with the slender and agile mech. The youngest bot smirked at this.

"Done so early with meditating, Prowl?" the cheeky Autobot prodded.

Sari, who was sitting on her faithful guardian's right shoulder, had failed to notice Prowl since she had been engrossed with watching the television. But when Bumblebee had spoke up suddenly, she was snapped from her trance and looked over her shoulder. Indeed, Prowl was approaching the group and he appeared as serious and as poised as he always did. The child shot him a warm smile and waved at him, greeting him a good morning.

"Morning, sleepy head!" she said cheerily. Her smile was as bright and as sunny as ever. "Glad you could join us!"

Bulkhead, Optimus and Ratchet faced Prowl, extending their morning greetings to him. Prowl brushed them off unintentionally as his processor was still mulling over the matter he had to bring before them. His Autobot compatriots noticed that he seemed more somber and broody than usual. Though they could not see his optics behind his visor, they could sense that something was pestering him and festering in his processor.

"Prowl," the Autobot leader said, "is there something wrong? You seem troubled."

"I have disobeyed you, Optimus," Prowl confessed immediately, seeing that sooner or later, he would reveal that he went against his superior's orders.

Almost instantly, the atmosphere became tense and suspenseful in contrast to the subdued yet content air that had prevailed just a few minutes before. Bulkhead and Bumblebee gave one another wary and somewhat nervous glances, silently asking themselves what Prowl had exactly done. Sari's eyes perked in confusion and she stared at Prowl expectantly. The old red and white medic hardened his gaze and steeled his spark.

Optimus was caught off guard by Prowl's remark. What shocked him even more was the emotionless tone in his voice when he spoke to him. More than anything else, he appeared to be totally serious in whatever matter he needed to voice to the young Prime. He did not know what the issue was exactly but he had a feeling in the pit of his fuel tanks that it was matter that needed his attention right away.

"Well, um…" Optimus hesitated for a moment, still wondering what it could be. "What did you do, Prowl?"

"I went against your orders regarding the three siblings that we suspected were in league with Megatron," Prowl said. "I defied your orders and went to their home and investigate it."

For a moment, Optimus feared it was a far more grievous and steep offense but he surprisingly did not find himself particularly angered at this reveal. Instead, he was just slightly annoyed that he was not informed of this little secret mission. In a way, he felt that he sympathized with the ninja bot due to the fact he had a secret hidden from his allies. However, he would not tell them that he had encountered Blackarachnia in an abandoned slum a few nights ago.

"Did anyone see you?" Ratchet questioned. "Are you sure that no one had seen you snooping around?"

"No, no one saw me," he replied. "To be especially stealthy and covert in my operations, I used my holoform. I entered the apartment that the Preston siblings live in but luckily, they were not home."

"So you broke into their home and snuck around?" Bulkhead pieced together. "Isn't that illegal on this planet?"

"I walked through the door when I manipulated my holoform and I took nothing from their home because I did not want to alert to them that someone was there. I'm sure they have a feeling that we're onto them and I want them to try to shrug off those insecurities in time and forget about us discovering them. I'm sorry but I could not wait anymore. Optimus, I know you told me to wait until we had a greater amount of reason and evidence to investigate them more fully but ever since the surviving MECH guard, Nathaniel Albright, told me what he knew about the boy Silas captured alongside Starscream and the two women who might be coming to rescue him…"

"You went to visit him in the hospital?" Optimus interrupted.

"Yes. I'm sorry that I had to lie to all of you like this but I believed that we needed to take action as soon as possible. But I am now telling you the truth now that I've received some results from my investigation."

It was not the first time Prowl had acted on his own accord and disobeyed Optimus; he had saved the Dinobots from being melted down and shipped them off to an uninhabited island in Erie to live out their lives in secrecy and solitude. Though he was a free and independent spirit who often opted to work alone unless it was necessary, Prowl was still a valuable teammate and friend to the earthbound Autobots. He was also loyal and despite his sometimes rebellious actions, he never showed any signs of defaulting or sympathizing with the Decepticons. Not only that, when he had went against the orders of his leader, he often had a good reason to do so.

"Well, don't be shy," Bumblebee butted in, intrigued and hungry for the information that his friend spoke of.

"First off, when I entered the apartment, it appeared that the occupants left in a hurry," Prowl explained. "Their kitchen was in a state of disarray. I looked underneath the kitchen sink and saw an assortment of oil bottles, some half empty and others unopened. Their couch seemed to be weathered and beaten up, particularly on one side of it. I then decided to go back to their bedrooms to see if I could find any evidence of any sort in there. Two of the three bedrooms wielded no results but when I went into the remaining bedroom, that's where I made two significant discoveries. Firstly, I discovered that the young femme who disappeared for that day half an Earth year ago, had purchased those oil bottles under her sink. I came across a receipt on her dresser, proving that she made the transaction…"

"Well I assumed the femme bought them unless if she stole them." Bumblebee scoffed loudly. He had interrupted Prowl before he could announce the second discovery. "What in the Pit are you trying to get to here?!"

"If you didn't run your mouth like you just did and remained quiet and attentive, Prowl would've gotten to the point by now!" Ratchet angrily snapped at the peppy young bot.

Grumbling to himself, Bumblebee unwillingly fell silent, allowing his friend to go on. He didn't want to admit it but he saw truth in the old medic's words.

"Trust me, the finding of the oil bottles ties in with discovery number two," the ninja bot promised. "Now you'll all have to believe me on this and not question if my scanners had been seriously malfunctioning…"

"Oh come on," Bulkhead brushed off the tension in Prowl's voice, dismissing it and not thinking it to be something very paramount. "I think we can all take it!" The big green Autobot rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Can't be that bad or ridiculous…right?"

"I detected an airborne chemical signature in Ms. Preston's bedroom that I did not expect to see at all. To be specific I detected pheromones. To narrow it down even more, they belonged to a seeker."

Contrary to what Bulkhead believed in how he'd handle the reveal, his jaw ended up hanging widely. Mostly everyone had remained quiet to listen to Prowl but now the atmosphere was as silent as a haunted wasteland. One could even hear a pin drop or the faint thrumming of the Autobot's sparks. Though Prowl had asserted that his scanners were far from defective, they all wondered if perhaps he misjudged his own soundness and confidence in them. They never would've guessed that. It never would've even briefly crossed their processors.

"Pheromones?" Sari spoke up. She scratched her head as if she was presented with a challenging question on a pop quiz.

"Sari, cover your ears," Bumblebee instructed.

"What? Why?!"

"Please, just do it!"

"Bumblebee, I'm eight years old, I think I can handle it!"

"You've corrupted her enough already and this is a learning experience for her," Ratchet intervened. He never thought he'd side with Sari in an argument like this before. "She may as well listen in with everyone else."

"Thank you, Ratchet." The red-haired little girl smiled sweetly at him but then sassily stuck her tongue out at her guardian.

"How is that possible?" Optimus said, still wondering if he had heard Prowl wrong. "Just how did that happen?"

"I wish I knew too," Prowl sounded disappointed in his inability to provide a rational explanation. "But somehow, a Decepticon managed to fit in there and was more than likely living with the siblings for sometime."

"When you said 'pheromones'," Ratchet wanted to clarify and confirm what he was now assuming, "you meant…mating pheromones?" The motorcycle only nodded his helm once. "Fantastic. That means we have a lovestruck Decepticon on our servos."

Sari finally understood what was going on. She bit her lower lip and began to snicker lowly. Her laughter then built up for as long as she entertained the image of a Decepticon with hearts in his optics and a huge box of chocolates in his arms in her head. For as long as the silly picture remained in her mind, she giggled louder and harder. Then it got to a point where she was howling loudly for all to hear. She kicked her tiny feet and folded her hands across her belly as the laughter began to wind her and rob her of her breath.

"Prowl..!" she gasped and wiped a tear away. "Do you know who it was? Please tell me it was Lugnut or Megatron!"

"Unfortunately, I couldn't pinpoint who it was exactly," he said.

"And that is certainly no laughing matter," Ratchet coldly chided the organic child. "A Decepticon in love is a potentially dangerous thing. True, they sometimes forgo and dismiss feelings of love since some believe only destruction and fighting are the only things that can reside in their sparks. But sometimes, they fall in love and when they do, it can get very ugly. If two mechs fall for the same femme, they will often kill each other for her affections. Believe it or not, sometimes the femme will make them battle each other to the point of offlining so she could choose her mate. Their ways of courtship are deadly."

So much for the adorably sappy and clichéd assumption she made. Sari's cheerful and amused smile quickly melted away as she imagined two male Decepticons ripping each other to pieces for a female who watched them with a wicked smile from a distance. Very quickly, she felt humbled and sullied as Ratchet's miniature lecture sunk in. She slumped in her seat and turned her eyes to the floor.

"Granted, not all Decepticon relationships are carried out to that extremity but it has happened before," he further noted upon seeing Sari grasping the information.

"Okay, so these pheromones…" Bulkhead at last collected himself enough to speak out on the matter and include himself. "You found them in the girl's apartment?" An imaginary lightbulb lit up above his head. "The bottles of oil make sense now too! But it doesn't make any sense how a Decepticon managed to fit in there and lived with them for awhile!"

"Megatron does have my dad," Sari sorrowfully reminded them. "Maybe he made something for him that could somehow sneak a Decepticon into a Human's home? Maybe something like a shrink ray?"

"It is entirely possible," Prowl settled for her explanation. "The atmosphere in that bedroom was very odd. Although I was invading their home I especially felt like an intruder more than anything else in the bedroom. I felt like I was in a nest and I even felt uncomfortable being in there. I didn't want to snoop around in there too much longer if I didn't need to."

Optimus simply couldn't believe what was unraveling before him. He saw no reason why his friend would lie about this evidence, particularly the part about the pheromones. As long as he reviewed this shocking information, he felt like a huge fool. He felt incompetent and weak. Prowl had disobeyed his commands to wait and see what more would present itself in time. He had urged patience and not to jump to rash choices and make hasty conclusions too early. If Prowl had went along with Optimus' orders, it was very likely they would've never had the information they had now. They would've been kept in the dark and it was also entirely possible that the situation would blow up and become catastrophically out of hand in the future.

As he had felt before, Optimus didn't become angry with Prowl's independent investigation. More than anything else, he felt thankful that Prowl went out and uncovered what he had. His pride was a little sore as a result of this but he had no desire to let his hubris get the better of himself. The last thing he wanted to become was another Starscream or a Megatron for that matter.

"I believe we have enough evidence now, thanks to Prowl's doing," the Prime voiced. "According to this information that's he's provided for us, the situation has become far more pressing and delicate. I am now fully convinced that the Preston siblings, in particularly, the eldest, have a connection to the Decepticons. It makes my spark heavy to conclude this but it's becoming more obvious."

"I bet any money it's Blitzbrain," Bumblebee cackled. "Remember when he and Starscream fought over the girl a few months ago? He also let her go easily and he flirted with her!"

"I'm thinking Starscream," Bulkhead countered. "Starscream didn't want to let go of her either. Or maybe like Ratchet said, they're fighting each other for her!" He paused for a moment. "But then that means a Decepticon is in love with a Human! How does that happen exactly? And how and why would the Human return it?" The husky Autobot rested his faceplate in the palm of his servo. "This is just getting weirder and weirder…"

"That seems to be the case…" Ratchet admitted. "As unbelievable as it sounds and seems, this does seem like what we're dealing with. We should now be especially wary of the Decepticons' actions when we eventually cross paths with them again. One of them is producing the pheromones and sooner or later, we will find out who it is."

Optimus nodded in concurrence.

"But for now, I think our next order of business is to monitor that apartment," he decided. "Apparently, the siblings appeared to have gone somewhere but I'm sure they won't stay away from their home for long as long as they don't suspect someone intruded in their residence. When they do come back, we will take action. I now believe we have enough reasons to bring them in for questioning. In particularly, I think we must confront Cynthia."

(Daufuskie Island – 6:00pm)

Once more, Helen remained enchanted by the mysterious young man who was her eldest child's beloved. At first, one would think that she was falling for her daughter's love interest but in truth, she was intrigued since it had been a long while since Cynthia had a boyfriend. The elder woman also was entranced by him because of his accent and his peculiar quirk of talking in three different voices at random intervals. Though she barely knew him and was not informed of his existence and connection to her daughter until she met him a few days prior, Mrs. Preston longed to see the two together as a married couple. In her head, she was already wondering who she'd encourage Cynthia to invite to the imaginary wedding.

Robert was a stark contrast to his wife however and he continued to be wary and suspicious of Johann. Though Helen attempted to convince him that he was a harmless, charming and polite young man who had emigrated from Germany, the lawyer would not have it. The fact that none of his children informed him or Helen about him unsettled him and made him seriously wonder if something was afoot and they weren't telling him about it. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but it seemed his children and the man seemed to all be behaving a little oddly since they left the cabana the previous day. The four of them had said nothing to him yet he sensed that something was wrong somewhere.

"So, Mr. Blitzen," Robert said, striking up a conversation. The family had just finished their meal. "You have said that originally you were a native of Germany?"

Blitzwing hesitated for a moment. His efforts and time had been mostly preoccupied with winning Cynthia back and he barely gave any thought to his fabricated lifestory as a Human. He cursed himself, wishing he had at least done a little more research to make his story more credible and believable. He knew he had won Helen's trust and admiration but Robert remained a completely different story.

"Vhy, yes, jou are most certainly correct," Random smiled, trying to sound friendly and inconspicuous. "Born and bred zhere aczually!"

"Now I'm curious…" Mr. Preston began. "Where exactly did you come from in Germany?"

_"Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich..!" _Hothead began to yell out the names of random Germanic cities in suggestion. _"Jou have to come up vith somezhing!"_

"I am from a tiny town outside of Munich," Random said slowly, furiously racing against time and trying to come up with a decent story of his life. "I lived zhere all of my life…"

"What prompted you to come to America, if you don't mind me asking? Specifically, why did you choose Detroit?"

"Vell, my parents died vhen I vas about nineteen years old," Icy took his turn. "It vas difficult for me to deal vith and I struggled to provide for myself. I saw an opportunity to make a better life for myself here in zis country and I took zat chance. As for ze Detroit portion of jour question, I vent zhere because of ze booming robotics industry in ze city. I figured I could find a job in zat particular industry or may be even some ozher sort of income if need be."

He forced himself to wear a smile to reinforce his innocence.

"Oh, your mother and father died?" Helen frowned. "I'm sorry to hear that, dear."

The truth about his parents being deceased was also true but he wasn't going to be telling them that they were actually seekers.

"Zhank jou for jour kind concern," he said. "I still do zhink about zem but zhey cannot be brought back. I've accepted zat."

"And then you ended up coming to Detroit as you planned and you met my daughter," Robert deduced. There was a smile on his face but it was not warm.

"Dad, it's okay," Cyndi said. She was silently watching the conversation between Blitzwing and her parents. Mandy and Darien had blatantly ignored the disguised 'Con, choosing to not even acknowledge his existence. "Everything's okay…please don't act defensive and mean."

Robert then allowed the friendliness of that smile to shine through. He was merely testing the reactions of his daughter and her boyfriend. There was still that distaste and sinking feeling of suspicion he felt towards this Johann fellow but for now, he saw no legitimate reason to rightfully hate him.

"Oh come on, Cynthia, you know how much I jest and joke," he chuckled. "Fathers are supposed to frighten and intimidate their daughter's boyfriends anyway."

The couple didn't really find his statement funny. They were lost in their respective heads, still trying to deal with the reality of the massive and public fight they had yesterday. Both were stressed by the heartache, anger and other explosive and taxing emotions that resulted from it.

Then Cynthia placed a hand on his shoulder. Blitzwing's heart swelled and soared at her touch and he instantly smiled at the action. His eyes flitted to her direction but she was not looking at him. Instead she was focusing on her father.

"It'll take a lot more to frighten and intimidate him," she said.

"I would assume that one would have guts of steel if they wanted to travel to a city where extraterrestrial robots battle one another," Robert shrugged. "I still cannot believe I allowed my children to go there. Yet so far, I have not entirely regretted my decision."

(9:00pm)

Halfheartedly, Cyndi allowed her sister to take her hand. The brunette wanted to take a solo walk around the island in an attempt to try to heal the deep emotional wounds she had received. However, Amanda had to intervene and deny her of going on her solitary quest. Spiriting her away from their parents, brother and the one who had shattered her sister's soul, Mandy guided her sister to the small crowd that was gathered around the makeshift stage where a local band was performing. The younger sister believed that some music and some quality time with her would help to lighten Cynthia's heart.

With the sun setting steadily over the salty waters and the sound of a band playing soft and relaxing melodies on a warm and tranquil beach, one would've and should've felt at peace. To a brokenhearted individual though, this may have been one of the most painful settings to spend their time in. Rather than lift her spirits and dispel the oppression of sorrow, Cynthia felt as if she wanted to cry.

Amanda settled for standing around the outer rim of the crowd. They could still clearly hear the music and she was confident no one would bother to eavesdrop on any chatting that she would be doing with her sister. She still held onto Cyndi's hand, not wanting to let her go and subliminally reminding her that she would always be there for her.

"I've wanted to spend some time alone with you but that jerkoff or Mom and Dad kept getting in the way," she said to her. Cyndi didn't seem to notice her speaking but she decided to continue. "I pulled you away because I want to see you happy and not miserable, okay? I figured some music would help calm you down."

At last, she got a reaction from Cyndi. She leaned against Amanda and buried her face into her shoulder. Quietly, she wept on it. Amanda wrapped her arms around her and placed a kiss on the crown of her head.

"Do you want me to kick him in his balls for you?" she asked.

"N-no…" the other Preston sister said in a muffled voice.

"Please, don't cry. I can't stand to see you cry. You start to get me choked up too when you do that." Mandy cleared her throat and wiped away some pooling moisture out of the corner of her eye.

"God, Mandy, it hurts… it hurts so bad! I feel like throwing up every single time I think about those women! His words keep playing over and over in my head and they're torturing me! What if I am ugly?! What if I am an unpleasant, ugly, grotesque beast?!"

"No, you are not, Cynthia. You are my sister and my best friend. You are the most beautiful, kindest, smartest and wonderful sister I could ever ask for. Don't listen to what he said. Ignore it. He's the ugly monster, not you."

"I gave…" She swallowed hard. She needed to confide in her more about why she believed he had done what he did. "I gave in to him before he turned Human. It was the night when I didn't come home. Then when he became like us, he became obsessed and addicted to the thought. I told him to wait until we got back to Detroit but he got impatient and fed up."

Amanda gasped a little too sharply than what she had wanted to at that moment. She knew Cynthia had been gone for that whole night with him but she didn't realize that they actually made love. Though she had previous suspicions that he was trying to deepen the intimacy with Cyndi back when he resided in the apartment, when she told her that it actually happened, she didn't know what to think. At first, she thought it was not possible and from what Lockdown had told her before, Cybertronian courtship could be fatal for organics.

"Jesus Christ…" she murmured.

"I know," Cyndi leaned even harded into her. "I ruined my life."

"No, no, no! I didn't mean it to say it like that. I just can't believe you made out with an alien! How is that possible?!" Mandy stopped herself before she could ramble on any more and possibly draw unwanted attention. "Okay, I should shut up and not talk about that. Sorry. Look, I understand your pain too. Believe it or not, I suffered from a case of heartbreak recently too… in fact it was on the night you disappeared with that bird-brained fool."

Without any thought at all, Cynthia instantly had a feeling with what Amanda meant by that. She felt like an idiot at that moment, feeling as if she failed her sister by not noticing earlier and not asking why she seemed irritable and sensitive the night at the hotel. Now she mourned over her lack of vision.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Cynthia whispered. "I didn't know you told him how you felt about him…"

"I treated it as a personal failure," Amanda answered. "I kept thinking to myself that I wasn't good enough and maybe I was immature the longer I thought about it."

"You should've talked to me about that…"

"Don't worry, I'm okay. I'll get my revenge. Say, I think we should get hot doc Knock Out to help us get revenge on those two nasty guardians of ours. I think he'd look forward to it if you ask me." Cyndi said nothing in reply. "Okay, maybe not. I'm sorry, I should just let you cry on my shoulder and hug you. I'm sure that's all you want."

"I wish you would've told me about it, Mandy."

"We'll talk about it when you feel better, okay? Your heartbreak was way worse than mine was."

The two fell silent and they quietly agreed to listen to the music. Amanda did not let go of her sister and continued to hold her in her arms. Likewise, Cyndi didn't stir in her grasp and allowed her head to rest on her shoulder.

"_Now we'll try to stay blind to the hope and fear outside,_" the band's singer recited the verse. It was not the group's own song but it was a cover from a song that neither sister had heard before. "_Hey child, stay wilder than the wind and blow me in to cry. Who do you need? Who do you love, when you come undone? Who do you need? Who do you love, when you come undone?_"

(…)

"What do you mean you don't want to go pheasant hunting again?" Robert was shocked by his son's response. "Normally, you love to go!"

Ever since the incident with MECH and he was forced to shoot Silas, Darien never wanted to pick up or discharge a gun again. It was true that he had killed the man who had his eye on shooting his sister but his conscious still tortured and haunted him. Never in his life did he think he would end someone's life, even if it was in the act of protecting others. He dared not to tell his parents about the matter but his young and scared soul yearned to disclose to them about everything that had been going on. The only people who could rely on and disclose his thoughts to were Cynthia and Amanda and they themselves were as trapped and frightened as he was.

"My opinion on firearms has changed since I lived in Detroit," he stated tonelessly to his father.

"If anything, I would think that you'd be even more adamant in using a gun," Mr. Preston reasoned. "I would've thought you'd like me to maybe even give you a pistol so you could use to protect yourself and your sisters. Maybe you could use it to shoot one of those metal titans in their eyes if they tried to kill you."

"I don't believe in shooting living things unless if it's an absolute necessity."

"Oh, Darien, knock it off. It's not like we went into the nature reserve to shoot as many pheasants as we could to brag to others. We did it to make sure their population wouldn't become a nuisance. We would kill one and only one and bring it home for dinner."

"I think it's very admirable and alright," Helen defended her little boy. "Darien's turning into a sensitive and responsible young man. He's changed since leaving Greenvale and I'm proud of him becoming his own man."

Darien was hoping his mother would step in and shut Robert down before he could extract more explanations from him about his refusal to go hunting anymore. He felt his blood pressure lower and his tension dissolve, feeling a little more and safe from his lawyer father's inquiries.

"I just think it was odd that you changed dramatically about pheasant hunting is all," Robert said, diffusing the situation before it could become a bigger argument. "When you were fourteen, you couldn't wait til it was in season. If you don't want to go whenever you come back home, that's fine. I'll admit that as I keep getting older, my desire for it waned as well."

Pretending as if he wasn't paying attention to the conversation, Blitzwing eyed the crowd that stood before the band. In truth, he was eavesdropping on the topic but excluded himself from being involved. While his ears were focused on the three family members, his eyes were glued on the two familiar women in the crowd. He felt his heart aching when he saw Cynthia turning to Amanda for comfort because he knew very well that he was the source of her misery and woe.

He buried his face into his hand, cursing himself once more for his actions and wished that she would be the one crying on his shoulder and seeking solace and warmth from him. His instincts screamed at him to go over to where they stood and join them but he knew he would receive a frosty reception, especially from Amanda. Making a scene was also something he had no desire to repeat.

When he removed his hand from his face, he then spotted something that made his body hot with anger. Blitzwing felt his hands clench into fists and his eyes narrowed at the sight of a third person who appeared to be conversing with Amanda and Cyndi. It also appeared that Cynthia was no longer leaning against Mandy and hiding her face from the world.

Without wasting another moment, he strode over to the audience to break up whatever conversation was going on between them and this unknown stranger.

(…)

Out of the kindness of his heart, a young man had approached the two females whom he assumed were sisters or friends. He had been watching from afar and heard nothing of their conversation but he could tell that something was troubling the one woman. He had no intention to stir any trouble or attempt to get particularly close to them since he wondered if perhaps they might've had boyfriends nearby. To his eyes, he thought they were attractive but he didn't want to make any advances. It was concern and concern alone that motivated him to confront them and he was determined to keep it that way.

Needless to say, Cynthia and Amanda were surprised and flattered by this stranger. He appeared to be a little older than Mandy but no older than Cynthia. His hair was black and he had maroon streaks going throughout his hair. His eyes were brown and he looked to be about Darien's height. Amanda had thought him to be fairly handsome but on the other hand, Cyndi didn't even want to acknowledge his very presence due to her miserable mood.

"Well, thank you for caring," Mandy said, smiling softly at the young man. "My sister and I do appreciate it. She's been going through a lot lately."

"Not a problem," the young man, whose name was David, assured them. "I didn't want to come off as a stalker or anything when I came up to you but I had to do something."

"You're very sweet…"

David found himself blushing at the blonde's words. He felt his heart racing a bit faster as long as he stared into her pale green eyes. She was becoming more and more beautiful to him for as long as he kept his eyes on her.

"And you're too kind," he laughed nervously and began to blush a little.

When he turned his eyes away from her for just a fleeting moment, in the dying sunlight, he spotted the figure of man approaching them. The blush on his cheeks left him and he began to pale with fear. David could tell this man on a mission and what frightened him the most was that as he was coming closer, he had a tall and toned frame and the angriest pair of eyes he had ever seen.

"Who are jou, jou little runt?!" the man roared, causing some of the audience members to glance over at him.

Upon hearing Blitzwing's furious tone, Cynthia and Amanda felt their eyes widen. David instantly suspected that they knew this fellow and he swallowed hard. Deep in his bones, he knew it was highly possible he was going to have the crap kicked out of him.

With an equally ferocious stance and facial expression, Mandy spun around to face Blitzwing. Cyndi crossed her arms and stared down at her feet, still preferring to ignore everyone and everything. David shuffled about nervously in place and wondered if it was best to slip away or try to explain himself.

Blitzwing reared himself to his full height, towering over the small group. His eyes were narrowed and he wore a very unfriendly frown on his face. Though he was not in his real body, there were still remnants of his Cybertronian nature in his blood. Part of that heritage was now manifesting itself in the form of a terrible and jealous fury.

"I said, who are jou?!" Hothead repeated loudly.

"Get out of here…" Amanda hissed. Her tone was low and dangerous. "This is none of your business. Nothing is happening here. He came over to check on us because he saw Cynthia crying on my shoulder!"

"She's right!" David nodded his head quickly. "Look, I'm sorry, I'm not here to steal your girl or anything, I just wanted to see if they were okay!"

"Everyzhing is fine, now get moving before I punch jou so hard in ze face zat jour children vill feel it in ze future!"

"Oh don't tell me you're acting jealous from us talking to a kind stranger?" Mandy stood on the tips of her toes, glaring at him. "You know what I think? I think Cynthia should start smooching and making out with him right now in front of you so you can feel what she felt!"

Mentally, David connected the dots and deducted that Cynthia had an unhappy connection with this irate man. This had to have been the source of her problems and making her so quiet and unresponsive since he first approached the two females. Now he felt even more shaken and threatened when Amanda made that unsavory suggestion to him.

"I…I think I'm gonna leave now…" David whimpered.

He hurried off, fearing that he was going to end up getting destroyed by the large man. Blitzwing continued to stare him down for a few seconds before he felt his urge to attack David lessen. Within his throat, he growled deeply and shook his head in disgust. Then he refocused his attention on Cynthia and Amanda.

"Cyndi," he said, Icy's calm yet stern voice emerged, "vhat happened zhere?"

"She doesn't need or want to talk to you," the blonde interrupted. "I can answer that question as well as she can and frankly, I already answered it for you!"

"Did jou hear me say 'Amanda'? Because I did not… I vas not talking to jou, child."

"Nothing happened, I didn't say anything," Cynthia spoke up at last. She had only spoken in order to prevent them from fighting one another. "Please leave us alone."

Blitzwing's temper died down when he heard her voice. Even though she told him to go away, it was enough to convince him that nothing had happened and Amanda wasn't hiding anything. He glanced at her one more time before he unwillingly left her side. At the moment he did not have the desire or strength to win her over and have her break down in hysterics again. The attempts at reconciliation were going to be private sessions and he planned on having them remain that way.

"Seriously, can I please kick him in the groin?" Mandy spat. "He chased him off! Can you believe the nerve of that big dummy?! He has the right to get with as many girls as he wants but you can't even be in the presence of another man?!" She exclaimed in an exasperated and frustrated tone. "I'm gonna kick his ass! You're letting him off way too easily with this, Cyndi! You need to make him hurt for what he did!"

Cynthia could scarcely comment. She allowed her sister to rant, rave and vent while she watched him walk over to rejoin the family. At this point, her anger was still there but it was being drowned and overwhelmed by the sadness and self-pity she was embroiled in. Everytime she even looked at him, she became more sorrowful and less furious.

Before she would know it, a week would pass and she wondered just where she would stand emotionally then. Her heart would remain unfixed and battered and she would still be forced to serve the Decepticons she abhorred and never wanted to aid. More than anything else, Cynthia hoped that she wouldn't end up swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills and downing a bottle of wine. Or having her wrists hook up with the kitchen knife…or placing a gun barrel in her mouth and squeezing the trigger.

* * *

><p><strong>So anymore I'm starting to become annoyed. People just like to spam the review section with pitiful requests to read their stories and that really rubbed me the wrong way when I read that (and no, honey, I did not read your story. Read the reviews and was instantly discouraged. Nice try though.) If my story is becoming nothing more than an advertisement board then I wonder if it is worth it to continue. I find it increasingly difficult to write in the Transformers section anyway and I'm starting to see I'm losing my touch with writing. I know this story kinda drags on but I'm trying my hardest to make it interesting and engaging but my work just seems to be reflecting pure shit anymore. There will come a time where it'll pick up. I really hope this hasn't become a crap story(yeah I'm encouraging flamingcritiquing too if it'll help me improve. I ALWAYS welcome constructive criticism!) If it is getting awful, please say it so I can make it redeemable and enjoyable for people. The worst thing I could do to you guys is give you a story where you don't want to read it or make you regret in reviewing/faving/following it. Anyways, Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to everyone :) **


	56. Lachrymose Pardons

**Hi guys thank you for the follows/faves/reviews. I wanted to make a few comments before I talk about the next chapter. Firstly, I wanted to apologize for the way I worded my ending note on the last update; I sounded whiny and I didn't want to come across as that. I was simply frustrated with the spam reviews I was getting. So I'm sorry for that little immature act. This story is also not being cancelled either and there's no way I'm going to hold this story hostage if I don't get an "x" amount of faves/reviews/follows etc., so don't worry about it disappearing! **

**As for the chapter itself, I was really undecided how to write it exactly. The way this ended up turning out was different than what I originally wanted to do but hopefully I won't regret it. Hopefully you guys end up liking it! Enjoy! :)**

Chapter 56 Lachrymose Pardons

(Daufuskie Island, July 30th – 8:30pm)

It had been approximately five days since the two souls had their explosive yet brief fight at the cabanna and neither was doing very well. Their act was starting to fail and both Mr. and Mrs. Preston had voiced their concerns about how they had seemed so weary and depressed. It was becoming amazingly difficult to put on a happy and fake smile and pretend as if their bond had been splintered. Whatever memories they ended up reflecting on within the privacy of their minds had become marred and dirtied by their misery and desolation. They had sat close together at restaurants, weakly held each other's hands at the beach and gave one another soft kisses on the cheek but they had felt so frigid and foreign to each other.

At least twice a day, Blitzwing would attempt to talk to Cynthia when she was her brother and sister or when she was alone but his efforts were thrown back into his face. He was often dismissed by the sneering stares of her siblings or he was told to leave her be when he got too close to her. The longer the issue went unresolved, the more stressed and overwhelmed he became. He slept very little and his appetite had diminished dramatically. His emotional turmoil that he had kept hidden within himself was now threatening to breach forward physically. He had bags beneath his eyes from the lack of sleep and his color was starting to look sickly. His stomach was beginning to sink in a little from his decreased appetite and he was starting to lose some weight.

Cynthia had fared no better than he did and like Blitzwing, the signs of strife were becoming evident in her as well. Her sleep suffered as well and she often left the bed she shared with him and attempted to rest on the living room couch when her relatives had went to bed for the evening. Her appetite had also decreased and she obsessively kept dwelling upon the fight that had occurred no matter what. The woman was almost always frowning now and it was difficult for her to put on a happy act for her parents now. More than anything else, she just wanted the trip to be done and over with so she could distance herself from her estranged sweetheart.

On this particular day, there were even no more efforts to hold one another's hands while in the presence of Mr. and Mrs. Preston. With each attempt Blitzwing made in talking to her, he became more and more discouraged and despairing. His persistence didn't affect Cyndi and for as long as she remained so melancholy and morose, she did not see that he was making these efforts with good and loving intentions. Amanda and Darien's glares and dismissive words to him also further hindered his efforts but she took no notice of it. Though his confidence and willpower was taking a brutal and taxing beating, Blitzwing refused to give up entirely. He still loved her and some stubborn and strangely romantic part of him also refused to believe his femme had completely given up on him.

In his eyes it was entirely unbecoming of her to appear this way; to look so somber and drained. Blitzwing noticed how the situation was taking a toll on her and it made him even more worried about her and her condition. Her face almost seemed to be aging with heavy bags beneath her eyes and the dominant frown on her face and seemingly made her less pretty than she was. He was aware of his own physical and emotional decline but he was more concerned about her welfare than his own.

She was slouched on the couch and looking at the television yet it was not on. In the screen's reflection, she could see him and he could see her. They quietly looked back at each other in this way but said nothing. One waited for the other to say something but neither wanted to part their lips and speak.

Amazingly, they were alone together in the rental house. Cynthia's relatives decided to head back to the cabana where the fight occurred to go for some night swimming and a walk on the beach afterwards. She had declined from going with her family members, explaining that her stomach was feeling sour and upset. Blitzwing knew she was lying but he told them he would remain with her to watch over her and keep her company while she was feeling ill.

The thick and uneasy silence in the house was almost too much for him to tolerate. He was becoming more restless and anxious. The issue still remained unfixed and he was starving for a simple embrace or a kiss from her. He wanted a real kiss from her, not one of the fake ones she placed on his cheek in front of her parents. Those kisses were impassionate, cold and unhappy. In these past few days, his lust had all but left him since it was watered down by the fight. If he did win her back, all he wanted was to hold her in his arms and shower her with kisses and affection.

Like all the previous approaches, he moved in closer to her. He still gazed into the reflection on the TV screen and he could see she wasn't looking away either. Cyndi made no move to get up and it seemed like she had no desire or strength to move from her spot on the couch. He parked himself beside her but gave her some space.

"Cyndi," he addressed. It was Random who was talking right now. "Can I talk to jou for a little vhile? I vould really like to…"

"Why?" Her voice sounded weak and laced with agony. He couldn't tell until that point that she was silently crying.

"Please don't cry." He set a hand on her shoulder. "Cyndi, jou have no idea how much I hate to see jou cry. I know I'm ze cause of it too vhich makes it even more painful."

She said nothing else to him. Blitzwing pulled his hand away and tapped a finger contemplatively on his bearded chin for a few seconds. He pondered for that time before an idea came to him.

"I zhink it vould be a good idea if ve vent for a valk," Icy suggested, taking control.

"It's getting dark," Cynthia answered.

"Zhank Primus zis island is not very big and ve know vhere zis house is. Come on, Cyndi. It vould be good for ze both of us. I vould like to talk to jou anyvay vhile no one else is here."

She sighed heavily but he was surprised and thankful that she complied. Cyndi stood up and he followed her a second later. They walked to the front door together and opened it up. They stepped out onto the porch and shut the door behind them.

"Where are we going?" she asked, her tone still low and depressed.

"Vherever ve feel like," he replied. "I vill look after jou. As long as ve don't stay out too long, ve'll be fine. I know ve must leave early tomorrow morning to head back to Detroit."

Again, she said nothing. His frown grew bigger and he knew that she quite possibly could become angry and uncooperative as the walk would go on. Tonight, this would be the final effort he would make on his part. He had no idea what would happen but he hoped that she would forgive him and return to him. The timing and situation was perfect and he would not squander or waste it.

With the waning sunlight filtering through the Spanish moss-covered trees, providing them with enough light to begin their walk, they left the property. They walked on the sidewalk through the tiny neighborhood where their home was located. It consisted of many other rental vacation houses although some were occupied year-round by the locals. The air was still heavy and humid but it was cooling now that the sun was beginning to fall.

For the first five minutes, they walked along in silence. They walked side by side but there was a distance of about ten inches from each other. The only noises they heard that prevented complete and awkward silence were the hypnotic drones of locusts in the trees and the calls of birds.

"I'm sure jou know vhat I vant to talk to jou about," he started.

"Yes, I know," Cyndi said. She did not look at his face.

"Vill jou listen to me or vill jou ignore me and zhrow my sincere vords back at me?"

"You hurt me, how can I forgive you for what you've done or listen to you for that matter?" As he expected, she started to become angry and annoyed. "I saw you with them! I wasn't born yesterday, you know!"

"Zat vould make me a pedophile if zat vas ze case!" Random came up, eager to crack a joke to see if he could get a fleeting smile out of her.

It took her an awful lot of willpower to stop herself from smirking at his joking. She managed to pull it off though. Her blue-gray eyes finally looked at his face and she didn't appear to be amused in the slightest bit.

"I trusted you," she went on. "I gave you my heart with no strings attached. I doomed myself and inadvertently, my own brother and sister by loving you…"

"I know vhat I did and I vill keep telling jou zat I am sorry," he cut her off before she could become angrier. "I vill say it as many times as it takes. It is my fault and I vill not try to lay ze blame on anyone else. I vas veak in zat moment and my lust had overridden my reason and loyalty. I vill admit zhese zhings because I know I have done vrong against jou, Cyndi. All I desire, all I vant, is to have us be happy again vith each ozher."

Cynthia shook her head. She sighed heavily and buried her face into her palms but continued to walk along. After a few seconds of this, she removed her hands from her face. Her eyes remained glued to the surface of the road and nothing else.

"You can keep saying those things but I cannot get over it this easily," she asserted. "What you said hurt me beyond what you can even imagine…"

"No, I do understand jour pain because I vas rejected cruelly and called unsavory zhings by ozher femmes," Blitzwing stated.

"Well maybe you should've stopped and put it into perspective before you did what you did! This whole incident has beaten me down at a molecular level and it is not fun at all. I've been sick to my stomach, having chest pains and wanting to cry constantly because of you."

"Cynzhia, how do jou zhink I feel? Do jou zhink I vas not affected by zis fight? If zat is ze case, zhen I vill let jou know zat jou are mistaken. Like jou, I am suffering from it emotionally and physically. I am striving to put an end to it and yet jou insist on letting it go on and continue to remain unsolved."

She stopped in her tracks. Blitzwing ceased his walking a second after he did this, preferring to remain as close to her as he could. There seemed to be surprise and disbelief in her eyes as he stared back at her.

"Do you hear yourself?" she murmured. "Are you aware of what you've done exactly? Blitzwing, do you understand that you were ready to sleep with those women?!" Her voice began to rise in volume. "You called me those names and told me to leave you alone so you could run off and screw them! You're trying to lay the blame on me!"

He looped one arm around her and began to walk along again so no one would possibly listen in on their conversation. They had already attracted enough attention multiple times from their dealings. She did not fight him but instead glared at him with furious and sore eyes.

"Cyndi, I am trying my hardest to not lose my patience," Hothead spoke lowly to her. "I know jou have ears and jou have a brain zat is capable of processing information properly…" He swallowed hard, not feeling entirely confident with the feelings he was going to lay bare before her. This persona often had difficulty with expressing his gentler and more romantic side. "I felt nozhing for zhose femmes. I never loved any of zem. I only vanted to use zem for one reason and jou know vhat it is. I'm… I'm s-sorry." He growled at himself for hesitating and stumbling over his words. "My spark…I mean heart…hurts me for as long as zis goes on. I have realized just how much I love jou vhen I saw how much zis is hurting me. Ve vould both be stupid if ve vere blind to each ozher's pain. I see jours and jou see mine, Cyndi. Ve can heal each ozher and move on as ve should. Ve vill be getting novhere if zis keeps going on."

"I cannot move on and get over it, that's the problem!" the woman exclaimed. "I trusted you! I begged you to wait and you kept pushing! Then you attempted to betray me…" She struggled in his hold but he did not release her. "If I forgive you, your conscious will be cleared and it will only be a matter of time before you pull another stunt like that again! I want to forgive you but I am still having a Hell of a time wrapping my head around the fact that this even happened."

"Listen to me, Cynzhia. If jou forgive me, I vill do vhatever I can to furzher make it up to jou. I do owe jou but please, let's get over zis!"

He was quite resolute in this matter. She almost admired his determination but she still would not so easily give in. His offense had shattered the trust she gave him into billions of shards and Cynthia had wondered if it was ever possible that their relationship could ever return to the way it was before the feud. She also didn't know if she could ever look at him the same way again either.

"Blitzwing…" Cynthia started. "Even though you did this to me, there is also something else that is obvious. I am still in love with you. I don't think I can fall out of love with you so easily despite what happened."

Those words reignited hope in him. Blitzwing was fairly confident that somehow, she still loved him but to hear it had reinvigorated his will and strength to win her back. He figured that as long as he kept talking to her and reminding her how much she meant to him, their problem would be solved. Neither of them would suffer from the effects of the heartache and once more, they would be basking in one another's arms. The prize of her love, tender kisses and warm embraces was within his reach and it was a spoil he was more than willing to strive for.

"Cyndi," Random came up, "I am so happy to hear zat! Ve love each ozher still…I say ve kiss and make up!"

She turned her head away from him almost as if she was denying him of a kiss. Cynthia at last managed to free her arm from around his. The Human folded her arms across her chest as she tiredly looked back at him. Daylight was fading at a swift rate but she could still clearly see his face. There was also a large, joyous smile he wore on his face as a result of his hopes being rekindled.

"You've placed so much doubt and second thoughts in my head," she said. "I seriously wonder if I am as ugly as you said I was."

That same smile he had on his face shattered and was replaced by puzzlement and dread.

"No, jou're not!" The normally happy personality sounded panicked. "I know I said it already to jou but I am so, so, so, sorry! To me, jou are ze most beautiful organic femme I ever laid my optics on! I love ze vay jou smile! I love ze vay jour beautiful eyes look back into mine! Jour laughter makes my spark dance in my chest! Cynzhia, jou have no idea how much jou mean to me… I vish jou vould stop zhinking jou are ugly and unloved because it is not true! Please, jou have to let it go! I vant jou back and ve still love one anozher! I miss us being happy togezher!"

Her happiness and lighter feelings refused to be dredged up from the deep and dark trenches of despond. His words had wafted through one ear and slipped out from her other and they did not register in her mind or sway her. The frown on her face remained supreme and her chest continued to feel empty yet agonizingly heavy and tense. Cyndi forced herself to keep walking and not stopping for anyone or anything. She could hardly believe she was still walking alongside him but she knew he would not leave her alone.

"_I ruined my life,_" Cyndi lectured herself privately. "_I sealed my fate and that of my siblings'. I got us into this horrible servitude and now we're nothing more than disposable slaves… They didn't ask for it and neither did I! What have I done?! They will never let us go because we know too much and we have to serve them until we die… It was all because I wandered too far from the Christmas lights festival and met him. Just by falling in love, all this happened. This is past the point of no return and there is no more hope for us. Amanda and Darien…_" As she remained wrapped up in her inward reflections, the flow of her tears didn not cease and increased in volume. "_I love you two with all my heart. The last thing I would ever want to do is put either of you in danger or hurt you. I promised Mom and Dad I would protect you but I failed. I was stupid and selfish. I've forced you two into becoming enemies of humanity just because you kept quiet about my little secret. I now wish so badly that you had betrayed me and told someone so they could lock me up and brand me as a criminal against Earth. If that had happened, you wouldn't be forced to work for those monsters…_"

Blitzwing was steadily becoming more unnerved and anxious for as long as she ignored him and kept weeping. His stress level heightened even further and his thinking became even more frantic and disorderly the longer he was starved of an answer of some sort from Cyndi. Sweat started to bead on the palms of his hands and he bit his lower lip in anticipation. Her crying did not make matters any better and he was at a loss as to what to say to her. Losing her was not an option unless if she had broken his will or if some other unforeseeable predicament had prompted him to give up.

"Cyndi, please say somezhing!" he begged. "It's driving me more and more crazy as long as jou stay quiet!"

The road they were walking down led them farther and farther away from the cluster of homes where they were residing. The pair had been walking for fifteen minutes now and the salty smell of the sea was becoming more pronounced in the air and their nasal passages. As they got closer to the beachfront, they could hear the monotonous undulation of the sea. The serene scenery and sensations went ignored by them however. Their attention was centralized on the matters of their hearts.

"What do you want me to say?" she spoke almost inaudibly.

"I vant jou to say zat jou understand me," Icy said with a pained tone in his voice. "I very much hope zat jou do because if our roles vere reversed, I vould…"

"I cannot say much at all and you know it, Blitzwing. That's all I can tell you. All I know is that I am hurt. I've condemned myself and now I will pay for that until the day I die."

"Do not talk like zat! Jou did not condemn jourself, Cynzhia."

"Yes, I did, open your eyes! If I never fell in love with you, I would not be serving your master! I never would've got Mandy and Darien mixed up in this either! He won't let us go and we will never know freedom again. I did not want them to be enslaved. I never wanted to become the enemy of your enemy. I should have been your enemy!"

"I have svorn zat I vould protect all zhree of jou and I intend on keeping zat promise. I vill not let Megatron hurt any of jou…"

"You're afraid of him just as much as us! He almost killed you and yet you still remain loyal to him!"

He grasped both of her hands and held them in his own. Blitzwing stopped and she halted alongside him. His eyes stared straight into hers with an intensity she was not expecting. A chill ran down her spine for as long as her gaze was locked with his. His grip on her hands was tender despite his seemingly fearsome look.

"I almost lost jou on zat night vhen jou met him but I promise I vill not let zat happen again," he vowed. There was seriousness in his voice that made him sound angry yet Hothead did not take control. "I know I am not ze most righteous, goodly and kindest individual in ze universe but I know vhat I zhink about jou and how I feel about jou. I know zat I love jou, Cyndi, and I vill do all in my power to protect jou and keep jou happy. I know I have been in love before but I know I have cared for jou more deeply zhan any of my ozher interests. I vould choose jou even if I vas born a Human and as a Cybertronian, I do not regret giving my love to an organic femme."

"Jou better believe it too," Hothead said as he worked up the courage to speak on these matters. "And if it comes from me…" He fumbled with the words in his mouth. "…zhen jou should know I love jou, jou stubborn femme. Jou should know zat I don't joke around vith stuff like zat."

"I vant to go stargazing vith jou at ze lake again," Random said. "I vant to sit out in ze voods vith jou vhen it's snowing. I vant to make jou laugh, smile and roll jour eyes at me." He began to feel a little choked up and his eyes felt like they were burning. "Vhatever jou vant me to do, jou name it, Cyndi! If jou take me back, I vill do vhatever to repay jou! I'll rub jour feet, cook dinner for jou, get jou new clozhes or vhatever! Just name it and I'll do it!"

Something deep within her hinted to her that he was giving it his all. She guessed it was the solemnity in all his voices, the tears threatening to build up in his eyes or some other unknown indicator. Cynthia most certainly did still ache for him and more than anything else, she wanted it all to continue as if nothing had happened. The spiteful and grievous part of her being still urged her to scorn him and make him pay for the suffering she had gone through because of his moment of weakness but amazingly, she felt her walls beginning to crumble. She could almost literally feeling the love, devotion and remorse gushing from his being and that especially made her stop and think.

"Jou still need convincing, don't jou?" Hothead pressed. "If zis doesn't convince jou, zhen I probably don't deserve jou."

His face closed in on Cynthia's. He still held onto her hands, wishing to keep her as close to him as possible. Blitzwing moved his lips closer to hers and then set a kiss on them. The rest of the world did not matter to him and all that was important to him at that moment was reminding her how much he really loved her.

Cynthia's eyes widened when he put his mouth atop hers and began kissing her. She stood in shock for a few seconds before the reality became blaringly clear and obvious to her. Not too long ago, she would've been tempted to kick him in his groin again but that desire had seemingly been ferried away like ashes to the wind. Instead of those aggressive feelings, she felt nothing but love and peace.

It didn't take her much effort to wrench her hands free from his grip. Those liberated hands reached up to his head and she wrapped them around the back of his neck. She brought him lower to her face, making him deepen the kiss. Her lips pressed back against his as her emotions began to break through.

The kiss was passionate but there was no yearning in it. Their mouths did not part to implore entrance into their beloved's mouth. Instead of that, they pulled one another into a tight embrace and basked in one another's warmth and sanctity.

It ended up lasting around twenty seconds before she broke away from him. There were words that she wanted to address to him. Cynthia reared her head back but he still held her to his frame.

"I forgive you," she announced tearfully. Now those salty drops of water were ones spawned of happiness and relief. "I want to give you another chance. I love you too much." One of her hands caressed his cheek gingerly. "I especially can't forsake you if you still feel the same way about me."

Whooping in happiness, he set his hands around her waist and twirled her around while holding her out in front of himself. Blitzwing spun around a few times before he lightly tossed her up into the air. He caught her and brought her back to the warmth of his body.

"Oh, Cyndi!" Random cheered. "Jou have no idea how happy I am! Zhank jou! Zhank jou, zhank jou, zhank jou so much!" He kissed her again. "Blushy, jou just made me ze happiest mech in ze universe!"

"I vas frightened I vas going to lose jour trust and love forever," Icy said all the while smiling softly at her. "I am just so content and relieved now…"

"I vas hoping zat kiss vould pull it off," Hothead smirked arrogantly. His proud and boastful inflection returned to his voice once again. "I knew jou vouldn't be able to resist its charm and power."

"Yeah, keep thinking that," the Human woman chuckled. She wiped her tears away with a finger. "You were ready to cry like a big baby just like me."

"Zat vas Random, not me!"

"Whatever. I had all three of you giving you a run for your money with that ordeal."

"Let us not speak of zis again unless if it is necessary. Ve vill never forget vhat happened but ve vill not let it control our future."

Cyndi couldn't agree more. She no longer felt extremely ill when she thought about the incident but it still stirred some discomfort within her. She would forgive him but she would never forget it. In the future, she hoped that the ordeal would make her stronger. Truthfully, she hoped it would also strengthen her relationship with Blitzwing.

"I fully agree," she said. She was genuinely smiling for the first time in nearly a week. "Now we don't have to put on a show for my parents anymore."

"Jou better explain to Mandy and Darien zat everyzhing's okay too," he reminded her. "I vant all zhese problems settled by ze time ve get back to Detroit."

"I'll explain it to them and they'll back off. Well, you still have one more problem to deal with…but I'm hoping Professor Sumdac and Knock Out have made progress of some kind."

Blitzwing grunted in acknowledgment at her words. He was subtly annoyed that he was still in this Human shell but he was just relieved that his more immediate problem was taken care of.

"As soon as I get my body back, I vill take jou on a flight," said Icy. "I'll take jou to vherever jou vant and ve'll spend some time zhere. It'll be ze two of us and no ozher distractions."

"One thing at a time, okay?" Cyndi snickered. "Our problem now is getting you your body back. I have to say I miss it myself."

Random particularly was tempted to make a perverted comment about her last sentence but Icy and Hothead promptly silenced him before he could say it. The fight had been the root of his desire and he had no wish to make it an issue again especially when Cynthia had reconciled with him. He believed it was in his best and smartest interest to entirely omit any raunchy and dirty statements and jokes until some time had passed. There was also no way he was going to hint about them engaging in any carnal activity either. He figured he'd let her bring it up whenever she was comfortable with it again.

"Maybe so," Blitzwing agreed. He freed her from his embrace but held one of her hands. "But I'd say our next problem at ze moment vould be vhether jou vant to go for a night valk on ze beach and meet up vith jour family or head back to our rental house?"

"I say we go see them," she suggested. "I'd like Mom and Dad to know that my stomachache is gone now."


	57. Catching Up

**Hi guys, thank you for the faves/follows/reviews! So last the chapter was happy and relieving but this one...not so much. There's going to be a fair bit of drama and more troubles for everyone yet again. I'm also trying to pick up the pace with the story a little bit so if this one seems a little too quick, I apologize. I felt it was also necessary and I tried to remove any redundant parts. The other reason why I'm doing this is to set the stage more quickly ent that's going to be rather important. Anyway, please enjoy and leave a review if you wish! **

Chapter 57 Catching Up

(Detroit, August 2nd - 10:30am)

To say the least, the siblings were relieved that they were in the privacy and seclusion of their apartment once again. No longer did they need to worry about lying to their parents about them catching onto their servitude to Megatron. All they had to worry about now was relaxing and how long it would be before Megatron would summon them and require their use for one thing or another.

They left Daufuskie Island the day after Cynthia and Blitzwing made amends with one another and they had travelled until nightfall and stopped at a hotel. The next day, they resumed their drive back to Detroit where Mr. and Mrs. Preston dropped their children off at their apartment. They three offered their parents to stay and rest but they had opted to just continue driving back to their house in Upstate New York. After the two had disembarked for their next portion of their drive, the younger Prestons were left alone alongside Blitzwing.

A mere few hours after the siblings arrived back at their home, Megatron had sent Knock Out to retrieve Blitzwing. All he had said was that he had deemed it necessary for Blitzwing to be taken back to the mine because Professor Sumdac and the Decepticon medic had yet to engineer a cure for the triple changer's affliction ans would most likely need his help by giving more blood and possible tissue samples. He was reluctant to leave Cynthia's side as much as she was unwilling to part with him but neither wanted to impede Megatron's will. Blizwing didn't want to admit it but he felt horribly out of place and even nervous about being amongst his fellow Decepticons while entrapped in this organic shell.

Very shortly after Knock Out had left with the humanized Decepticon in his passenger seat, Lockdown had showed up. He checked in with the siblings and then retreated into the woods behind the complex where he usually lurked.

"I still can't believe you let him off the hook," Amanda said. There was a betrayal of disappointment in her voice. "I'd never forgive him for that."

Cynthia sighed and rolled her eyes. She actually couldn't believe she ended up forgiving him either considering what he had planned to do. As it turned out, she loved him far more than she hated him. That same love for him refused to wither and die. That and his heartfelt words had encouraged her to give him another chance.

"It was obvious that it was tearing him apart," she said to her sister. "Both of us were suffering from that whole mess and we wanted it to end." A tiny, content smile made its mark on her face. "I still love him. I would also appreciate it if you and Darien treated him nicely again too. Everything's alright. I forgave him so don't worry about it anymore."

"I worry about him picking up some other chicks and ripping your heart out again because you let him off so easily!" Mandy vented. "If I was you, I'd make him suffer beyond belief."

"Yes, I know you would which is why I ask you to cease the hostility."

"It's gonna take me awhile til I can call him my friend again," Darien chimed in. He was listening in on his sisters' conversation while he sat on the couch. "I'm still angry over that incident with Tristan. I really hope she isn't at school when I go back in three weeks."

"Now that you mention it, I'm still mad at Lockdown too…" The blonde haired young woman scowled. "When Hot Doc came to pick up Cyndi's horny boyfriend, I should've gone outside to go say 'hi'. Lockdown really hates him."

"'Hot Doc'?" Darien sighed loudly at his sister's nickname for the red medic. "Is that really what you call him? You better hope you don't say that in front of him."

Amanda giggled to herself. It was true that she still a little infatuated with Knock Out. But she was also still bitter from having her love turned down when she came clean with Lockdown. The spirit of vengeance lingered within her heart and she was more than prepared to use her newfound adoration for the handsome Decepticon to her advantage.

"If you're going to get revenge on Lockdown, leave Darien and I out of it," Cyndi waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "We need him on our side. None of the other Decepticons can stay in the parking lot or woods as well as Lockdown can because his vehicle mode is a car. I like him anyway."

"Whatever," Mandy said nonchalantly.

Their conversation fell silent. Darien continued watching television while Amanda and Cynthia wrapped up with washing the dishes they used for breakfast an hour earlier. No one uttered another word.

A few minutes later, there was a brisk knock on the door.

That instantly arrested everyone's attention and all three pairs of eyes were locked onto the door. Cynthia dried her hands with a tea towel and walked over to where the unknown guest hovered. Amanda and Darien held their ground and their curiosity only grew for as long as time went by. The eldest sibling pressed her face against the door to peep through the tiny hole to get a hint as to who was visiting.

She almost vomited in fear and anxiety when she saw it was a police officer standing at her door. What especially unnerved her was that it looked as if he was staring straight back at her through the glass-covered hole. Her heart beat picked up and her knees felt weak.

"Who is it?" Darien asked as he raised an eyebrow.

Cyndi reared her head back and unlocked the door. She took a deep breath and opened it up. Before she knew it, she was face to face with the officer.

"Can I help you, Officer..?" she asked in a friendly tone. She hoped that he didn't notice the fear laced in her voice.

"Pardon my appearance, I'm not really a law enforcement officer," he said. "I merely had to use this disguise so I could peacefully get your attention."

The siblings were as equally mystified as their older sister. Like Cyndi, they too were seized by paranoia upon seeing a cop show up on their doorstep but they were trying their best to bury any physical traces of their fears.

"Umm, I apologize but I don't really understand what you're hinting to, sir," said Cynthia.

"I'm actually waiting for you down in the parking lot," the holoform said. "I'm one of the Autobots and I was wondering if I could specifically talk to you, Miss Preston."

Collectively and in perfect unison, the brother and sisters thought "Oh my God". They had no idea that the cop was one of the Autobot's holoforms. They were determined to remain stony-faced in this situation and not let anything slip out.

"Yes, of course," Cynthia resumed as she folded her hands together. "Goodness, I had no idea you were one of the Autobots! You fooled me there! Um, would you like to come in?"

"No, thank you," Prowl refused her offer. "Instead, I was wondering if you could join me on a little trip. My fellow Autobots and I would like to speak with you."

Cyndi was amazingly relieved that Blitzwing was not present amongst them. It didn't matter if he was still imprisoned in a Human shape or if he was in his true Cybertronian body, she had a feeling he would be raising Hell if he was here to see this happen. Without a doubt, their cover would be blown and they'd be exposed. It was time for her to play the role of the ignorant, polite citizen.

"I'd be more than happy to help you out then," she said. "I guess I'll follow you?"

"Yes," he nodded his head. "What're your thoughts on riding a motorcycle?"

"I've never ridden one before…but it does look fun. And dangerous…" She took a step closer. Then she looked over her shoulder to meet the curious and scared gazes of her brother and sister. "I'll be back in a bit, guys."

Cynthia followed Prowl's holoform and closed the door behind her. Darien and Mandy gave each other wary glances after the door shut.

"Oh my God, this is unreal…" the young woman murmured. "What do we do?! They have Cynthia!"

"I'm totally clueless," Darien replied with an equal amount of stress and tension in his voice. "Lockdown probably stayed in the woods since he didn't want to get spotted by that Autobot! I have no idea what to do…"

(twenty minutes later – city park)

A wave of relief and thankfulness crashed over Cynthia when the black and gold motorcycle had slowed down and turned off the road. Besides riding inside Blitzwing's aerial vehicle mode for the first time, this was possibly the second most terrifying ride of her life. More than once, she feared falling off the Autobot or wiping out even though she maintained a strong hold on the holoform that sat in the front of her. She had all but forgotten about the fact they were supposed to be enemies during that time and firmly kept her arms wrapped around his waist. The awkwardness of that suddenly hit her as well since she realized just how close she was to another male Cybertronian…

"_Blitzwing would flip out if he found out I had to hold onto an Autobot for dear life,_" she whined to herself. "_Yeah, it's a holoform I was holding onto but that won't stop him from ranting and raving like a jealous, rabid lunatic…_"

Cyndi was surprised when she saw that the Cybertronian was driving into a park. There were joggers exercising as they made their way down a dirt path running adjacent to the road. Spirited children played on monkey bars and swingsets in a sand pit off to the right of the road. Some distance away, there was a pond where there were couples, both elderly and young, sitting on benches that ringed the body of water. Locust, elm, ginko, maple and sycamore trees dotted the area, offering little oasises of shade for anyone who yearned to find a tranquil and comfortable place to sit in and decompress from the stresses of everyday life.

Her hold on the holoform weakened as he slowed down and eventually he came to a complete stop. Obligingly, she hopped off the living vehicle and watched as the police officer disguise faded. After the holoform dissolved, the Cybertronian made his nature known by transforming. She watched as the Autobot transistioned to an anthropomorphic shape and towered above her. Though he made her feel like an ant, Prowl himself was considered puny and was dwarfed in comparison to the much larger Decepticons.

When he metamorphosed into his robot form and looked at his face, he suddenly became far more familiar to Cynthia. His name, which had eluded her until that point, suddenly occurred to her.

"Your name is Prowl, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yes, it is," the ninja bot confirmed. He wore no smile on his faceplate. "Now, please follow me. I'll lead you to everyone else."

(a few minutes later)

It was like experiencing that incident in February all over again to her. She was to face the Autobots by herself with no one else by her side. During that time, she was not an official enemy to them but since Megatron had forcibly enlisted her into his use, she was not to betray anything to them under pentalty of a horrible and unhappy ending.

Her conscious screamed at her to tell these "enemies" the truth since she had no true loyalty to Megatron or a wish to serve him. She wanted to throw herself onto her knees, beg and plead with them to forgive her and implore them to help free her and the other three Humans imprisoned by the Decepticon lord. But if she were to do that, she would also be betraying Blitzwing. The Autobots would be forced to kill him if he refused to yield to them and fought back. Cynthia was also fairly sure that they would not be willing to make a deal with her to let Blitzwing go free and remain with her while Starscream, Megatron, Lugnut, Knock Out and Lockdown would be attacked and possibly detained if she told them the location of the Decepticon's base.

As she walked closer to the shapes of the four aliens, their figures became clearer and she could identify their facial features. To her mild surprise, she spotted a little girl with red hair styled into pigtails standing right beside the smallest of the Autobots. Cyndi's interest in the child was instantly piqued as soon as she laid her eyes on her and she was curious of the connection she had to the robots.

"Miss Preston, I have to thank you for coming on such sudden and short notice," Optimus greeted as he took a step forward.

"Optimus Prime," she nodded her head at him. She hoped that she did get his name right. "You caught me at the right time."

"We tried to get a hold of you a few days ago but you didn't appear to be home."

"Yes, I apologize for that inconvenience. I was vacationing in South Carolina with my siblings and parents. We got back from our vacation yesterday. What exactly can I do for you again? I know the last time you questioned me was after that dreadful battle in the city a few months ago."

"We have a few concerns," Ratchet addressed. "We discovered some evidence suggesting that Decepticons have been skulking around where you live. We were wondering if you could possibly enlighten us on the matter. Have you seen any suspicious vehicles in the area?"

"I don't mean to sound rude or sarcastic but I think I would spot a Decepticon if they were roaming around where I live. I would instantly inform the police if I spotted a talking jet sitting in the parking lot."

The Autobots had all discussed earlier how they were going to question their suspect. They weren't going to immediately accuse her of anything and they would carefully note everything she'd tell them. The evidence Prowl had was in reality overwhelming against her and it was obvious to them she had to have some sort of tie to the Decepticons. Regardless of how the interrogation would turn out, they were still going to carefully monitor her and her agenda.

Cyndi felt unnerved that five pairs of optics were focused on her. She could feel the little girl's eyes on her too and she faced the fellow Human. The child had a small frown on her face and it looked as if she was thinking deeply.

"Hello, what's your name?" she smiled back at her warmly. Cynthia thought she was absolutely adorable. "How did you get to be friends with the Autobots?"

Sari didn't know what to think. Apparently, this lady was supposed to be a spy for the Decepticons but she didn't appear to be mean at all. She wasn't wearing a sneer or evil smile. She wasn't trying to get away from the Autobots. To Sari, she just didn't look like villain material.

"I'm Sari," she spoke up after a few moments of cautious silence. "I'm with the Autobots because they're taking care of me. Megatron kidnapped my dad and I haven't seen him since then."

At that moment, Cynthia felt as if she was slapped in the face. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened as Sari's words replayed back in her head. In her gut, she developed a nagging feeling that somehow, this girl seemed familiar and made her wonder if she knew someone who was related to her. But when Sari revealed that her father was Professor Sumdac, it blew her mind. Neither Sumdac nor the Decepticons ever informed her that Sari was his daughter. The revelation left her flabbergasted and astonished. The sheer shock was developing into sorrow as it further sunk in. It broke her heart to discover that the two had been separated from one another due to Megatron. Cynthia guessed that the girl had to be no older than ten and she could only imagine how traumatized and frightened she must have been when he was taken from her.

"I-I'm so sorry to hear that," Cynthia stammered. She cleared her throat. "That's horrible…I had no idea that was the case." She wiped a finger beneath one of her eyes when she felt a tear starting to form.

Everyone had noticed the shock and emerging sadness she was displaying. Upon seeing this, Sari was starting to really wonder if she was an organic agent of the Decepticons. The Autobots still remained steadfast and placed their trust in the evidence Prowl had presented.

"We did some scouting around that area a few days ago because we had not seen the Decepticons since the battle a few Earth months ago," said Prowl. "We decided to see if we could find any trace of them where you lived since that was where you woke up when you were kidnapped last year. While we were investigating, we found chemical traces of a Cybertronian pheromone located around the vicinity of your apartment."

Already, she could tell this was going to be a nerve-wracking roller coaster of emotions and lying. Cyndi hated lying just so she could appease a tyrant who had no regard for Human life but she was left with no choice. She only hoped that they would let her go at the end of this all and she wouldn't end up being thrown into a prison cell.

"Pheromone?" she asked in a perplexed voice. "Your species can produce them?" In that moment she really, really wished that Blitzwing would've gave her a little heads up about this interesting tidbit about Cybertronian biology earlier.

"Surprised?" Bumblebee smirked mischievously. He was delighting in the confusion she was exhibiting. "They were mating pheromones. To make it easier for you to understand, there was a lovestruck Decepticon sneaking around your home."

Panic was threatening to burst through the seemingly calm and innocent mask she was masquerading with. She absolutely did not like where this was going at all. Fear was building up and churning heavily and wildly within her guts and making her feel as if she was going to be physically ill. Cyndi feared that discovery was imminent but she would try her hardest to go along with the charade for as long as she could.

"That sounds so ridiculous!" she stated. "That's so unusual…and disturbing."

"Yeah, I thought the same thing too when we found out about it," Bulkhead added. "But really, that's what we found out. Do you know how to explain it?"

"I have no idea! I wasn't even aware that your species could produce something like pheromones! I have also not been at my home for over a week up until yesterday so I can't really say what might've happened in my absence."

"Have you noticed another suspicious vehicle that was not an aerial based one?" Prowl asked. He was tempted to pick at her brain to see if he could unearth anymore clues.

"No. I haven't seen or heard anything Decepticon related."

They knew that she was lying. Ratchet had stealthily managed to briefly scan her vitals, noticing that her heart was pumping more rapidly within her chest with each moment that went by. She was completely unaware of what they had discovered and she was especially oblivious to the fact Prowl had snooped around in her dwelling while she was away. The old medic could almost measure the amount of apprehension and stress that was building up in her.

"Miss Preston," Optimus patiently and gently spoke to her. "We have a right to be concerned about this particular issue. We can no longer ignore the suspicions we've developed that they are somehow connected to you. Your two incidents that you had with them previously have become more and more intriguing the longer we have thought about it." He was going to go along with the original plan of not telling her of the evidence Prowl had uncovered in the apartment. "We just wanted to let you know that there is no reason to be afraid of us and that we will not harm you. All we want to do is protect you, your family and all other lives that the Decepticons threaten. It is our duty as Autobots and it is a duty we will always carry out until our spark cease to exist. We only worry about what the Decepticons might be planning and what kind of damage they will be causing when they carry that plan out. Please, we ask you to share any information you might have with us. What you can tell us may prove useful and help us to deal with Megatron and his followers and stop them for good."

Figuratively, Cyndi was caught between a rock and a hard place. Once more, her conscious and morals warred with her love and loyalty. Had she not forgiven Blitzwing, she was very sure she would betray him and the Decepticons to the Autobots and give them the location of their domain. However, she had accepted his affections and returned to him, eliminating the scenario that could've transpired. Fighting all these emotional and ethical battles within herself was very taxing and exhausting for Cynthia and she wished that she could be magically transported to some fantastical utopia where she could walk around publicly with Blitzwing and not suffer any consequences because of that. Truly and intensely, she wanted to reveal everything to them but she knew they would not spare Blitzwing. She was not willing to risk another division with him especially after they had gone through such an exhausting hardship not too long ago.

The five Autobots and their organic charge had all noticed how somber and melancholy she had become for as long as she remained silent and pondering. Without a doubt, they knew of her guilt but Sari found herself worrying a little about her. Sari shifted nervously and looked up at her guardian. Bumblebee was busy observing the older Human female and could not sense his friend's gaze on him.

"I have nothing to say," Cynthia finally said. "I don't know anything even though I wish I did. I am frightened more than anything else now because I am worried what will happen for as long as we are kept in the dark. I'm sorry but I can't help you."

Bumblebee found himself becoming angry. He knew very well that she was lying to all of them and his patience was running thin because of her refusal to admit her guilt. He ground his dental plates and narrowed his brow plates at the suspicious organic femme. What infuriated him the most was that he believed that she thought he and the others were stupid and could continue to be duped into thinking that there was nothing shady and amiss about her.

"Are you insulting our intelligence?" the tiny yet spirited Autobot accused. "'Cuz if you ask me, you're doing that right now! We're not idiots like you think we are!"

Cynthia could not hold back a loud gasp at his biting and accusatory words. She was nearing the verge of panicking at this point and she was mortified at the thought of being unveiled as Megatron's lackey.

The other Autobots plus Sari were equally as surprised as she was and they did not anticipate Bumblebee to lash out like this without any seeming provocation. Sari knew her guardian was bold and not afraid to make a point of something but how he talked to Cyndi had shocked her. The other four Cybertronians grimaced at their comrade, wishing that he wouldn't push the matter further. In all honesty, they hoped on letting her go and secretly surveying and studying her to see if her claims were indeed true. But with Bumblebee saying these things, their hopes of monitoring her were in danger. They believed it was a very good chance she would be even more wary of them now.

"Bumblebee, that is enough!" Optimus raised his voice but maintained an authoritative and calm tone. "What was the meaning of that?!"

"Perhaps I should go," said Cyndi. She needed to leave their presence immediately or she feared she would suffer an anxiety attack and end up divulging everything to the Autobots.

"Don't you need a ride to get back home?" Bulkhead offered.

"No, I don't want to trouble any of you, Autobots. I'll just take a bus back but thank you anyway. I'm sorry but I don't want to cause any more problems amongst yourselves…" She turned her back to them and started to briskly walk away. "Goodbye."

Quietly, they watched as she quickened her pace the farther she got from them. All five of them were convinced of her guilt. Her testimony was simply not convincing to them especially with their knowledge of the former MECH guard's tale and the discoveries Prowl had made while she was out of state.

"Could you have been any more subtle?" Ratchet growled at the yellow Autobot. "We needed her to not think we'd suspect her of anything so it would make spying on her easier! Now she's going to be suspicious of us and probably run back and tell Megatron about it…"

"She thinks we're nothing but a bunch of mindless sparklings!" said Bumblebee. "I'm telling ya, I don't like that Human femme at all! She is the textbook definition of 'fishy'! She has to be with the Decepticons, she just has to!"

"I think we already knew that," said Bulkhead. "She seems like nice organic too. Just how did she get tangled up with the 'Cons? That's what I want to know."

"I don't know either but what I do know is that we cannot forget about her anymore," the young Prime added. "Prowl, are you willing to step up and do some surveillance on her for a little while?"

"I am more than ready," the ninja bot smirked competitively. "I scanned her while she was standing there earlier to see if I could see any traces of those pheromones on or around her. I didn't detect anything but it's possible it washed off her or it dissipated over a period of time too. But I think we're all in agreement that we're more than convinced of the truth."

"Lemme guess, we might as well watch after her brother and sister too?" Bumblebee wondered.

"Yes, we might as well. There's a very healthy chance they're in league with the Decepticons like her."

Sari didn't quiet know what to make of it all. A part of her wanted to believe that Cynthia was innocent and she wasn't a servant and spy for the Decepticons. But she also saw that all of the Autobots thought the same way about her so they all couldn't be wrong about her. Glumly, she was reminded of the time when she wanted to trust Blackarachnia when her friends doubted her abilities to keep the Key safe which led to a shortlived division between Sari and them. Perhaps, just like Blackarachnia, this woman was attempting to lull her into a false sense of security. Maybe she was trying to trick her and she really was an enemy.

(one hour later – apartment)

Lockdown was half tempted to trail behind Prowl in order to figure out why exactly Cynthia was driving off with the holoform. In the end, the bounty hunter decided to remain behind and be patient, believing that she would be back soon hopefully. He was astonished to see the Autobot appear so unexpectedly on the scene and he didn't have enough time to warn the three Humans of his approach. If he had seen Prowl approaching or had an inkling of an idea when any Autobot would show up, he'd immediately inform his Human charges in the form of a text message. He wanted to avoid any phone calls since he suspected the Autobots would detect such an action being attempted and then jam it. If that would happen, they would discover him and the siblings' connection to him.

Luckily, he did not need to wait long. He watched from the cover of the woods as a bus pulled up along the bus stop a few hundred feet away. The muscle car watched as he saw the familiar figure of Cynthia became visible as the bus pulled away as it let her off. He remained quiet and decided to wait to her to come closer before trying to speak to her.

As she came closer, he could tell that she seemed distressed. Upon seeing her like this, his spark quickened. For a moment, he wondered if perhaps the Autobots had interrogated her and managed to get answers from her. A doubtful thought then reasoned with him when he assured himself that if that truly was the case, he'd be expecting one of the Autobots making a beeline for his position in the woods.

He was further relieved when he noticed that she was indeed making her way over to his hideout and not going up the concrete stairwell she needed to scale to make it to her apartment. Lockdown transformed into his robot mode and sat down on the earth. He hunched his form lowly and kept his optics on her as she stepped into the tree line. The Human made eye contact with him and she jogged over to his side as soon as she caught sight of him.

"I need to talk to you now," she said with urgency in her voice.

"Likewise," Lockdown nodded his helm. "What in the Pit was all that about?"

"They suspect I'm working with Megatron…" There was distress and anxiety in her voice. "Lockdown, they're onto me! We have to do something about it!"

"We'll have to let Megatron himself know."

"I know. I think it's possible they might try to spy on me! I think it's obvious they know something about it…" She ran her hands through her hair as she struggled to get a grip on herself. "I can't let them find out we serve him!"

"Cool it, alright? I'm going to get a hold of him right now and you can tell him all about. He'll figure out what to do from there."

Cynthia nervously began to pace back and forth like a restless, grumpy leopard in a zoo exhibit. She massaged her temples with her fingertips and fought to maintain what little suavity remained. She was surprised she could even walk considering how stressed out she was and how weak and watery her knees felt. The fact the Autobots were suspicious of her was making her ill but what really terrified her now was what Megatron's reaction could be to her encounter with his enemies. There was no doubt in her mind that he would not be happy in the least bit.

She only needed to pace and worry for a minute. That was all the time needed for Lockdown to contact Megatron on his comm.

"I'm going to amplify the volume so you can listen to what he has to say," Lockdown instructed. "All three of us are going to participate in this."

"Okay," she said quickly. Cynthia nibbled on her lower lip and crossed her arms.

"Sorry to bug you so unexpectedly, Megatron, but we have a bit of a problem on our servos." The bounty hunter directed his attention to the silver warlord on the other end of his comm. "One of your spies has something that she has to tell you."

Cyndi felt as if she was punched in the stomach. She was thankful most of her breakfast was digested and her gut lightened. Otherwise, she was pretty sure she'd be throwing it all up.

"Cynthia, is it you?" Megatron's voice rang out. It was loud enough for her to hear clearly but thankfully quiet enough for no possible, hidden eavesdroppers to catch wind of. "Whatever is the matter?"

"We might be in trouble…" she started out shyly. Her throat cleared and she took a deep breath. "One of the Autobots came to my home and took me to meet the others. They questioned me about whether I knew anything about Decepticon activity where I lived. I told them nothing of the truth but I suspect that somehow, they know much more than they're letting on. There's this feeling I have in my stomach that's telling me that. I wanted to tell you this because I think they might try to start monitoring my daily activites along with Amanda and Darien's. I am concerned that they will uncover what's been going on."

In contrast to what she wanted, there was silence on Megatron's end. Her organs lurched in her body and she started to breathe harder. Cynthia swallowed roughly and prayed that he would not be outraged over her report.

"What do suggest that we should do?" Lockdown pressed. He was fully aware of how overwhelmed and frantic Cyndi was becoming.

"Well this matter certainly is something to cause alarm and command attention from everyone within our sect," Megatron said after a few more seconds of silence. "I thank you for swiftly and promptly bringing this to my attention, young Human. If you had prolonged with telling me about this, things may have taken a turn for the worst. Luckily, I have already decided with what to do about this."

"Please, tell me," Cynthia begged. "They can't find out about the truth!"

"Indeed they cannot for your sake and for the sake of your brother and sister. You may be pleased with what I have to say but I am sure you will also be disappointed and possibly even upset but it will also be necessary given our circumstances. For now, I believe that you and your siblings must lie low more than before. What I mean by that exactly is that I must sever nearly all ties to you, Amanda and Darien. I cannot communicate with you and neither can you try to contact me. I am sure that the Autobots may try to monitor every single aspect of your activites, even screening your calls and tracing them. That also means that none of my fellow Decepticons can maintain communications with you as well."

The woman felt a pang of agony within her. She would be physically separated from Blitzwing for who knew how long and the worst part about it was that she wouldn't be able to hear his voices over her phone. It only added more emotional baggage for her but she wouldn't let Megatron know of how much it bothered and saddened her. All she could do was hope and wish that this exile would not last for far too long.

"How…how long do you think this will last?" she weakly asked.

"Perhaps you might have an idea when I explain the second part of the plan to you," said Megatron. "While we cease all communications with you for an undecided amount of time, I will still have Lockdown watch over you. He will report back to me about the Autobots' activities and from there, I will decide what to do from there. Lockdown is quite skilled with stealth and remaining low key. If it is required, he will also protect you three if the Autobots were to possibly yet unlikely take drastic measures and even then, you will see less of him because of my orders for him to remain hidden."

She was thrilled that she would not be forced to see or speak to Megatron and the other Decepticons for however long. More than anything else, she'd be happy if she never had to see them again. But she would also be forbidden to see her sweetheart at the same time. Cyndi was becoming more and more sickened by the thought of being separated from the triple changer for too long and she wondered how that would affect their healed relationship.

"Do you have any more questions or comments?" the Decepticon leader inquired. He had noticed she had been quiet for a bit. Megatron had a fairly good idea of just what her thoughts had been centralized on exactly. "Have I made myself clear and understandable?"

"Yes," she said. "Yes, I understand. I have nothing more to say."

"Oh, no, I must thank you for bringing this to my attention. If I need to speak to you for anything, I will have Lockdown relay it to you when the Autobots are not watching you."

"Very well."

A few seconds later, Megatron had terminated the conversation. As soon as that was done, her long and lonely wait began.


	58. Refusal to Wilt

**Hi, guys thank you for the reviews/follows/faves! So for this chapter, it's pretty brief but it was kind of a breath of fresh air. It's somewhat uneventful too but it also is necessary since after this chapter, things will get interesting and important for the rest of the story. Enjoy the update and leave a review if you want! **

Chapter 58 Refusal to Wilt

(October 20th – apartment, 1:00pm)

The sound of water droplets slowly bleeding out from the sink and splattering against some plates reminded her once more that she needed to fix that obnoxious leak. Cynthia had almost treasured the sound of the dripping since it distracted her and made some noise in the painfully quiet and lonely apartment. Sooner or later, she would get to that and put an end to it. Right now, she didn't care about it in the least bit.

Amanda was working and Darien was at school, leaving her alone. About an hour earlier, she arrived back at her home when she had finished with her college classes for the day. A part of her wanted to start studying for that organic chemistry test she had coming up in a week but what she really wanted to do was lie motionlessly and lazily on the couch for a few hours. Maybe she would study for the test later on the evening. She had nothing else to do and no one else to see. The longer she thought about it, eating and sleeping became more appealing than studying too…

Two months had passed but to Cyndi it had felt like two centuries. Every single day felt like an arduous and never ending and struggle from sunrise to sunset. Each day had been spent in apprehension and gut-wrenching anxiety over the possibility that she could very well be taken into custody. Though her communications to the Decepticons and even Lockdown were almost nonexistent, she was still paranoid about being caught red-handed by the Autobots. She didn't quite know how she was dealing with it exactly but somehow she had managed to go through with these past months without suffering an emotional breakdown or panic attack.

Amanda and Darien on the other hand had felt less stressed and fearful than their eldest sibling. They had heartily enjoyed being temporarily excused from Megatron's service. It especially pleased Mandy since she no longer saw Lockdown as much anymore and he was not actively serving as her guardian, transporting her around and whatnot. Darien was merely happy that he would not have to see Megatron or any of the others for an undisclosed period of time and he didn't need to be worried about being trampled by one of them. Like their sister, they too worried about being apprehended by the goodly Cybertronians. But unlike her, they were far more willing to tell the truth if they were brought in for questioning. They had no bonds or ties to any of the Decepticons and they were eager to betray them if they had the opportunity.

The two months should have been peaceful and recuperative but it sadly was not. Cynthia had kept her eyes peeled for any evidence or signs of the Autobots trailing her but she had not seen them. She thought she had seen them a few times but it was also possible that she had mistaken them for a nonliving automobile that looked an awful like any of their vehicle modes. The sightings spooked her and put a strain on the woman, making her cloud her judgment and thought process. She knew it would be best to remain calm and act unsuspicious yet it was also very hard for her to do so.

Blitzwing's absence also placed further stress and strife on her. She had not seen him, heard his voices or received a shred of news about him since he had left the apartment. His comfort and love was what she craved the most during this trying and nerve wracking exile and she was deprived of him. Terribly, she missed him and she wished she could experience the feeling of his digits running through her hair and his cool hide against her warm skin. Cyndi didn't even know if he was still trapped within his organic confines. She had not even seen Lockdown for weeks and she wanted to at least have some information on the triple changer's current condition.

Cynthia sat immobile on the couch for an hour before suddenly deciding on something. What she knew that she needed to do was get out of the apartment for awhile. She needed a retreat of some sort and disrupt the taxing rut she was in.

She grabbed her cell phone which was sitting on the coffee table. Bringing the phone closer to her face, she began to type a message to her sister. It read; '_I'm taking the car out for a few hours. I'll be back a little after nightfall. I'm not cooking dinner but you're more than welcome to order a pizza'_.

Gently, she fingered the seashell necklace she had fashioned for herself two months earlier. It was the exact same shell her love had given to her after their fight. She had taken his advice and made it into a necklace by using a spare silver chain she found lying unused in Amanda's jewelry box. Cynthia hardly ever took it off and the only time she did was whenever she went to sleep.

Deciding not to wait for a reply back, she got up and walked out to the kitchen where her purse sat on the table. She grabbed her purse, sifted through it to locate her keys and walked out the door. Cynthia locked it behind her and made her way over to the car.

(one hour later)

With a grunt of effort, she pushed the door open and walked into the old, wooden structure. She was met with the familiar smell of hay and dust as soon as she entered the barn she and Blitzwing often frequented. In her own way, Cyndi decided to cope with the hardship of being separated from him by visiting their private getaway. Although he was not going to be there, she felt closer to him being there than she had felt in the past few months. Perhaps if she moped around inside the barn for a little while and reflected, maybe she'd feel a little better and feel more confident and less stressed.

But before she could close the barn door behind her, something caught her eye immediately. She had expected it to be somewhat dim even though it was afternoon since there were no light fixtures save for some rusty, old oil lanterns on the inside but it was actually brighter than she expected. Curious of this change, she looked straight ahead, and spotted a few objects that caught her off guard and quickened her heart.

"Oh, great…" she muttered and shook her head in disappointment.

Cautiously, she walked further into the barn so she could investigate what she discovered up close. She saw a white and blue couch with a rose floral pattern. About two feet away from the couch sat a coffee table that was crafted from cherry wood. On top of the table sat a little pot of mums that were colored yellow, white and pink. Off to the left of the couch was a little bookshelf that sat empty and more than ready to hold a tiny collection of magazines or books. A series of lanterns were placed in a circular formation around the assortment of furniture, giving off a soothing and soft ambiance (it was also the source of the brightness that Cynthia did not expect earlier when she first entered).

She sighed in defeat and frustration when she saw all this furniture, realizing that someone had taken over her and Blitzwing's hideaway during those two months of neglect and misuse. They certainly didn't get all this furniture into the barn and she felt a little envious that neither of them gave a thought to refurbishing it and making it comfy and homey for themselves. Now that she actually saw all this furniture in the building, she saw the full potential it had for passing as a possibly livable and cozy retreat. As Cynthia came closer, she saw that the fixtures seemed almost new and well taken care of despite the fact the couch had some tiny stains on it and a corner of the coffee table was chipped off.

At first, she thought a group of teenagers had taken over the barn and these items in so they could comfortably engage in drugs and some lovemaking but she was becoming unconvinced of that as she looked around more. The air didn't reek of marijuana nor did she find any drug related paraphernalia. She was now ruling out teens since the furnishings were in relatively good condition and the atmosphere almost seemed too charming and hospitable for the tastes of most hormone-driven youths. Cyndi almost breathed a sigh of relief at these thoughts and was thankful that it was most likely not teenagers.

When she finished investigating the condition of the couch and started moving away from it, she noticed something that was set up about ten feet from this odd living room area of sorts. With her curiosity most certainly seized by her surroundings, the woman approached the unidentified object. Seconds later, she discovered its identity.

"A mattress frame..?" she asked herself.

She knelt down beside the large, metal square, seeing that it was indeed a frame. There were even four little wheels on its corners to verify its use. A mattress had yet to be put atop it but whoever this remodeler was had plans on changing it very shortly. Whoever was redesigning her retreat had the intentions to make it like a miniature home. She was half expecting to see a bathroom or kitchen set located in a corner now.

With each object she inspected and left, she would find something else of interest that was not in the barn two months earlier. Cynthia had noticed that some of the more worrisome and rotted wooden beams and supports had been removed and replaced with stronger and sturdier ones. She also saw that a lot of the rusty, potentially hazardous farming tools that lied scattered throughout the area had disappeared. The amount of cobwebs had drastically lessened as well and had livened up the space even more. It also seemed that the very air no longer had the scent of mildew and decay as it did earlier. Whoever was doing all this home improvement was doing an excellent job in her opinion.

After ten minutes of wandering around and admiring all these changes, she unhappily decided to leave. Judging by all this activity that had been going on, she guessed that Blitzwing didn't know about what was occurring. Surely if he did, he would squish the organics who were invading his retreat and all the fixings would be smashed into pieces. It was a shame that someone had taken over their barn but at least the new owner was taking far better care of it than they had.

"He's going to be so angry when he finds out what happened," she said to herself. "It's going to take a lot for me to convince him to not kill whoever's doing this."

Before she could turn around and head back to the door, she halted in her footsteps. She could see the door start to slide open, signaling that someone else was amongst her. Cynthia froze for a moment before she dashed over to one of the newer support posts and flung herself behind it so she could avoid being seen. The door continued to open and she could tell by hearing it slide along. She listened carefully so she could possibly try to identify who was entering.

The first clue she received about who it was in the form of something she felt. Sometimes, she could hear it but more often, she felt it beneath her feet as it traveled through the ground. Her heart jumped in her chest when she indentified these as tremors created by someone with some very large feet. Whoever owned that pair of feet had to be larger than any Human's feet. Cynthia's first thought was that one of the Autobots had followed her out to the abandoned property and may possibly be approaching her to apprehend and detain her. This possible reality froze her in her place and she was afraid of even breathing. She comforted herself by reasoning that they did not know she and Blitzwing used to hide away in this barn before Megatron gave them orders to cease contact for the time being but the prospect of discovery unnerved her and made her stomach feel heavy.

Then she could've sworn she heard whoever it was muttering. She still remained as still as a stone and dared not to even twitch a finger or toe. Closing her eyes, she attempted to steady her breathing and pondered over whether to face the Autobot she expected to see.

After a few seconds, there was dead silence. She felt no more Cybertronian-caused tremors beneath her feet and the air suddenly felt tense and eerie. Cynthia nervously gulped, fearing that she had been discovered and they were attempting to lull her into a false sense of security. However, she refused to take the bait and remained in her hiding spot.

"Come out, organic!" the voice threatened.

Oddly enough, there seemed to be a pronounced and thick accent to the speaker's voice. What made it all the more vexing was that this voice was all too familiar to her. Within seconds of the extraterrestrial's identity being unveiled, Cyndi's troubles had magically been lifted. Her body felt light and happy as if she had suddenly sprouted wings on her ankles. A large smile formed on her face and she nearly melted into a puddle of glee and relief.

"Not unless if you reveal yourself to me first, robot," she coyly replied.

"Jou've got some nerve to talk to me like zat!" Hothead thundered. "Is zat a challenge?!"

"Oh, are you that thickheaded that you couldn't even recognize your girlfriend's voice?"

"For jour information..!"

Before he could ramble on any further, he stopped himself. This organic had a soft voice, indicating this was a female who was intruding in on his territory. As her voice circulated within his helm, he recognized it. He wanted to smack himself upside his own helm for taking so long to realize it was his favorite Human. To disguise the sheepishness he felt, he smirked proudly.

Cynthia retreated from her position behind the support beam and lifted her head up so she could lock eyes with him. Blitzwing was about fifteen feet away and he was crouched down on his servos and knees. The two stared at each other in slight disbelief and major joy at the sight of one another.

"I must be dreaming!" Random said in a shrill voice. "Is zat really jou, Cyndi?!" He blinked his optics a few times in a row to really see if he was hallucinating or not.

"Don't tell me I changed that much in two months," she laughed playfully at him. "I should be ashamed with you."

Before she could even prepare herself, he scooped her up into one of his servos. Blitzwing sat down and brought her up to his chest. As gently as he could, he hugged her, drapping the same servo that snatched her across her back and pinning her to him. He hummed happily within his vocal components and rubbed her. Cynthia outstretched her arms and attempted to embrace him in her own way as well. They had to improvise due to their size differences but they managed some sort of hug.

After holding her like this for a minute, he brought her up to his face plate. She knelt down in his servo to level her lips with his. Then she leaned in and kissed him.

"Ah, no," Icy said. "Zis is no mirage. Zis is ze real zhing. I had almost forgotten vhat it vas like to kiss jou." He saw the seashell around her neck. "And jou decided to keep my gift I see?"

"Of course," she said. "You might have given it to me while I was angry at you but when I cooled down I realized how much it meant to me, especially when I wasn't able to see you."

Blitzwing was only happy to see her alive, well and in good spirits. He very well knew that the Autobots had confronted her and he cursed himself for not having his original body back in enough time and being able to shield her from them. He was also aware that the exile of sorts was still going on but he honestly did not anticipate crossing paths with her. To see her was a massive relief to him and he did not care that if an Autobot had tailed her or not because he would be diligent and dedicated enough to make sure the enemy would never return to his comrades.

In her joy, Cynthia temporarily had forgotten that he was no longer in the organic form he had been the last time she saw him. She was relieved to see that he was no longer confined to that body but she was perplexed as to how he was able to regain his true shape.

"You changed at some point," she said. "How and when?"

His content smile faded a little but it still remained. Blitzwing pulled his knees up to chest.

"Knock Out and Professor Sumdac never found a cure," he explained. "It happened on its own. I ended up purging up blood in ze exact same manner in vhich I zhrew up all zat energon. I suffered for a day and vhen I voke up ze next day, I found out I got my body back."

"I wish I could've been there for you while you were ill like I was the first time," Cyndi said in disappointment. "I feel as if should've been there."

"It happened a few days after Megatron told jou to stay low and minimize contact vith us. I didn't vant jou to risk discovery by ze Autobots. I also vould not vant jou to risk getting on Megatron's bad side eizher… But I am alright and I have had no problems since zhen. Jou shouldn't vorry about me." Blitzwing's smile strengthened to assure her that everything was alright. "Jou have enough problems and vorrying about me should not be one of zem. A part of me is ashamed zat jou saw me vhen I vas so veak and vulnerable. I didn't vant jou to see me in zat state."

"There wasn't anything you could do about it. We were both scared by what happened. I'm sorry but I can't help it. You are worried about me and I am also concerned for you. I can't tell you to stop caring about me so you can't ask me to do the same."

He kissed her again before she could continue anymore. Dreamily, he gazed back at her. Reuniting with her was the most pleasant surprise he had in awhile and he was going to bask in it for as long as possible.

"So much for ze surprise I had in store for jou," he said.

"What surprise?" Cyndi questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Jou haven't noticed?"

"Oh!" Cynthia scoffed at her own lack of foresight. "You did all of this?" Her face became even brighter and happier. "You're fixing up this place and make it cozy?"

"Yes," Hothead arrogantly retorted, "it vas my idea. I vas getting bored vith not being able to see jou and spend time vith jou so I decided to fix up zis place for jou vhen ve vould be allowed to see each ozher again. Do jou like it? It's our nest."

She almost stopped breathing when he said that last sentence. The last time she checked, she wasn't a bird who roosted or nested with her lover. Cynthia didn't really know what to make of that statement and all she was really capable was staring back at him. For a moment, she wondered if he was really desperate or just had nothing better to do with his time.

"A nest?" the Human repeated.

"Yes," the triple changer grinned toothily at her. "It's comfortable, secluded and small…perfect if jou ask me."

"I do like it. It's private and I like the fact you put furniture in it. I'm also happy to see you're repairing a lot of the old wooden posts and beams. It was a much needed improvement…especially with your big, old rump coming in and out of here."

She giggled at him and then set a kiss on his cheek. He rumbled in a pouty tone at her comment. Blitzwing chose to ignore her playful insult and relish what little time they had together. Fights were not on his list of things to do with her.

"Jour aft isn't so tiny eizher," he countered. There was a smile on his faceplate as he said that. "It seems bigger now zhan two months ago."

Cyndi didn't quite know what it was but her thoughts suddenly turned to her meeting with the Autobots. She knew she could not truly enjoy this unexpected reunion with him since her thoughts were still rotating around the enemy. As she thought about them, she remembered the red haired little girl who was under their care and supervision. The child was the daughter of Professor Sumdac…

"When I was confronted by the Autobots, I met a little girl," she started. "She told me her father was taken by Megatron." Cyndi paused, frowning at Blitzwing. "You did not tell me Professor Sumdac had a child. I didn't know that they were separated from each other."

He sensed the rising disappointment and sadness in her and he was poised to diffuse it before it could get out of hand and result in another squabble between them. Besides forgetting sometimes that Sari and Professor Sumdac were family, he chose to not tell Cyndi about their connection since he knew that their separation would bother her and upset her. Blitzwing had felt the tiniest amount of pity for the Sumdacs when they were snatched from one another but he resolved to not let it dwell within his processor.

"It vas Megatron's doing," Icy explained as he took the front. "He decided to use Sumdac and his knowledge for his own purposes…"

"That man is sitting in that glass tube, separated from his daughter and that child is with those Autobots, wondering if she'll ever see her father again," she noted miserably.

"It is better to have zem driven apart zhan jou and jour family."

"You have no idea how nice it is to not have to speak to any of those Decepticons. The only thing I hate about this separation is that I cannot see you. Blitzwing, I hate him…"

He was not ignorant of how much she loathed Megatron. There was a healthy chance the Decepticon leader knew what she thought about him as well. Blitzwing tolerated her hatred and encouraged her to not betray him or give him trouble for fear that Megatron would kill her or her siblings in retaliation.

"I know jou do," he said lowly.

She said nothing in reply to him. Once before she begged Blitzwing to forsake the Decepticons but he could not do it. He had feared what would happen should he no longer lend his spark and services to his lord and master. If he had left Megatron's side, she and Amanda and Darien would no longer be bound to him as well. If he had done that, she would be all too willing to tell the Autobots everything she knew.

"I love you," Cynthia spoke. "I wish we didn't have to hide our relationship from everyone. I wish we didn't have to go through all these hardships…"

"But ve made it zhrough zhose hardships," he reminded her. "Ve beat zem and ve came out viser and stronger zhan before. And I am so, so sorry I cannot simply valk avay from Megatron. I know zat jou vill not ever forgive me for it eizher. I love jou, Cyndi…but I vill alvays fail zhere. I vill try to keep jou as happy as I can but it is one zhing zat is not possible vithout deadly consequences."

Blitzwing was frustrated that he could not give her literally everything she wanted but in return, she could not give him everything he wanted either. He loved her deeply yet he knew she would be dead within half a dozen decades or so which was a mere blink of an optic in his kind. Her longevity was something that bothered him immensely but he simply could not come to breaking off their relationship and urging her to find a male of her own species who she would have children with and spend what decades of life she had left. He was far too jealous and greedy to even think about her with another individual. Not only that, he had fought hard and tenaciously to regain her trust and love. More and more, he began to view Cynthia as his chosen mate and he could not help that he was so attached to her and he had not even known her for one solar cycle.

Both of them would have and already had made sacrifices in being with one another. It would break his spark to watch her wither and grow feeble as the years went by but he would prepare himself for it in time. It was inevitable and it was a price he was willing to pay when it would ultimately come.

Gingerly, he moved his head closer to hers and their flesh touched. His optics shuttered off for a moment as he enjoyed the warmth that her skin gave off. The triple changer ignored the troublesome thoughts circulating within his chaotic helm and chose to enjoy the rare moment he was granted. He did not know when he would be able to see her again so it was especially valuable to him at that point.

(downtown Detroit – 3:00pm)

She thought she saw him.

Pulsar was very sure her scanners weren't faulty as she drove down the road in her vehicle mode. The teenage boy had brown hair and had a scrawny yet tall frame; he looked too much like the one whose heart she broke a few months prior. Her spark quickened as she drove further down the road towards the spot where the young organic was standing at the edge of a crosswalk. She wanted to get a little closer to confirm his identity but she didn't want him to notice her either. Conveniently, there had to be a red light up ahead where the familiar Human male stood.

Her holoform that she had activated turned its gaze down to her legs. The small, orange Autobot disliked using her disguise while she was able to roam around Detroit in her alt-mode but it was also necessary. The native species would be awfully suspicious of her if they saw a Mini-Cooper driving down the street on its own accord with no driver behind the wheel. She also kept her energy signature masked so no other fellow Cybertronians would recognize her as one of their own.

Pulsar turned her head ever so slightly so she could confirm the identity of the young man. She was so close to the crosswalk that she could get a good look at his face and even the color of his irises. His eyes happened to be pale green and he looked too much like Darien Preston…it had to be him. As far as she could tell since she last saw him June, he looked the same. Perhaps he got a little taller but that was about it.

After staring at him for a few seconds, she averted her gaze and looked straight ahead. She couldn't put her digit on it but Pulsar could've sworn there was something else about him that seemed different the longer she thought about it. His posture and the way he held himself up seemed to change as well since their last meeting. Darien's face was also wore a scowl and it looked as if he was deep in thought. Something about him seemed more mature and somehow somber. He was not smiling and he did not seem as open and as friendly as he was a mere few months earlier.

"_Get over it, you stupid, petty, childish organic,_" Pulsar mentally chided him. "_I told you 'no' and here you are, still moping around over it. There are plenty more femmes for you to scope out and decide on. At least they have warm hides and real, beating hearts. I'm glad Marishka didn't encourage me to go back to the high school and let me leave when the year ended because I no longer have to deal with you anymore. What a brilliant idea that was to even agree to go there…she just wanted me to not spend all my time in the garage like I preferred to. Why do I listen to that insane fortune teller? Better yet, why am I still living with her?_"

Unhappily, she admitted that she had nowhere else to go if she had left the Romanian woman's side. The only reason why she even got tangled up with her was because she saved the widowed soul from being jumped by a gang of thugs while she was leaving the funeral home that was showing her husband's body. She couldn't let those five men kill that one defenseless female. It eerily reminded her of the time when she helplessly watched her mother perish at the hands of her attacker. Luckily for her, she found out Humans were easy to kill when she stepped in and slain them quickly.

For as much as she wanted to leave Marishka's side and go off on her own at times, Pulsar had grown attached to her "foster mother". Though the young Cybertronian had no great love and admiration of Humans, Marishka was an exception in her optics. She had learned about Humans through her and she gave her shelter.

Stealthily, she shot Darien another glance. He was now walking across the crosswalk, moving directly in front of her. Pulsar froze up and had her holoform look down at her legs again to avoid eye contact. This red light was going on far too long for her to bear.

He was making his way to a grocery store across the street, no doubt to grab a bottle of soda and a bag of chips before catching a bus to head home. Pulsar noticed name of the business and it jogged her memory a little. She could've sworn that Darien had told her once his elder sister worked as a cashier at the exact same shop. If she remembered correctly, her name was either Amara or Amanda but she couldn't which of the two it was.

Now that she was thinking about his sister, Pulsar recalled he had another sister who was the eldest sibling out of the three of them. She was a student at the city's university. Her name was…Cynthia, maybe? Maybe it was Caroline too for all she knew.

"_Wait a minute…_" she said to herself. "_Those names sound a lot like the names of those femmes who went to get their fortune read by Marishka awhile ago. Were those his sisters? Come to think of it, one of them had a nasty fortune and Marishka thought that Decepticons might play a role in her life. Then there was the attack in February… Oh what do I care about them?! Nothing ended up happening and it's not my problem._"

She was roused from her thoughts when she heard a car behind her blare its horn angrily at her. Startled, she looked in her rear view window, catching sight of the irate driver. He kept his hand firmly on the horn and Pulsar got the idea to look ahead of her.

"I hear you, scum!" she yelled at him, feeling a little embarrassed as she began to move. The red light had finally turned green.


	59. Bestowed

**Thanks for the faves/follows. Now for this chapter, it's going to be reminiscent of what happened in LIAL and I'm sure you guys saw it coming a mile away. But unlike LIAL, this story is going to keep going for awhile. I'm estimating it's going to be around 80 chapters or so when it's done and over with. *cannot wait until she gets this titanic thing done and over with...* Enjoy the update and drop a review if you want!**

Chapter 59 Bestowed

(November 3rd, downtown Detroit – 10:00am)

Either he was following the wrong Human or somehow he and his comrades had been wrong about her highly suspected connections to the Decepticons. From afar, the yellow Autobot had taken turns with Prowl and Bulkhead with watching over the organic woman for the past few months. So far, they had noticed nothing unusual or shady with her agenda. She went to her classes at the university, sometimes went grocery shopping or ran other errands and went straight back to her home. Bumblebee dreaded following her around anymore since it was so predictable and boring. He was almost praying that something would happen just so he would have something to report and feel that his shift wasn't a complete waste of time and effort.

All he had noticed was that at times she seemed stressed and nervous but other than that, her routine was consistent and repetitive. He and his Autobot teammates also kept tabs on Amanda and Darien and studied their agenda as well. Like hers, they were also fairly average and normal. Their lifestyle seemed to not deviate or differ from any other ordinary person's schedule. It almost seemed as if they got the wrong trio of siblings mixed up with another.

However, when he carefully followed her on this day, Bumblebee knew that something was a bit different. She drove straight from her apartment to downtown. As he tailed her, he quickly saw that she was making her way to the hospital. That really piqued his interest. He knew Humans could get sick rather easily but he got a feeling in the pit of his fuel tank that there was something amiss with her as Cynthia walked out of the apartment and got into her car.

"Hey, Prowl!" Bumblebee said excitedly as he commed his friend.

"What is it, Bumblebee?" the ninjabot answered.

"We got a break in the routine for this femme. She's going down to the hospital. I guess she's going to see a doctor or something."

"That's definitely something new. Stay where you are and monitor her when she comes out."

"Hey isn't this where that Nathan guy who once worked for MECH was admitted?"

Nathaniel Albright had been permitted to leave the hospital two and a half months earlier when the doctors had deemed him fit enough. He was still wheel chair bound when he left but he was no longer in such a bad condition where he had to be giving a steady amount of morphine and other pain killers. The man had kept in contact with the Autobots since his release but still could not do much for them since he was going through physical therapy and learning to walk again. However, he asserted and promised he would be all too eager to help them bring the Decepticons to justice once he was fit and capable again. In the meantime, he was staying in a hotel by the Detroit Police Department where he could keep in contact with the Autobots mainly through Fanzone himself.

"Yes, that's right," Prowl confirmed.

"That's what I thought," Bumblebee smiled as he still remained in his vehicle mode. "Alright, I'll wait here. I'm not gonna like it because I'll be waiting but I'll do it. Maybe we'll finally figure something out or get a clue or something!"

Excitedly, he cut off communication with Prowl and claimed a space in the parking garage. He chose a spot where he he sat a few spots away from her own where he could survey her when she came back out. Bumblebee quieted down and began to wait.

(20 minutes later - examination room)

It had actually been going on for two months but Cyndi thought nothing of it at first and laid the blame on some bug that had been going around. She almost always felt tired no matter how much she slept in or what time she went to bed. She was also gaining a little weight during this time but knew what was the cause of that. Due to being stressed out along with a combination of boredom, she found herself eating ice cream, potato chips, and some other junk food more often than she typically did (she even almost consumed a fifteen ounce jar of peanut butter in one sitting and she had to admit she was impressed with that feat). There also was this unflattering bloat that was slowly forming around her lower stomach but she blamed that on the poor diet she was partaking in lately.

The young woman disliked the thought of going to the doctor's for a check up but since her annoying illness had been going on for a few months, she decided to get to the bottom of it. After the end of this appointment, she resolved to shake off some weight that she gained as well. Apparently she gained about seven pounds in those two months and she felt ashamed of herself for letting her boredom and anxiety get the better of her and coerced her to eat more than normally. She'd very much like to fit comfortably into her jeans again and not feel like a bloated sausage. Wearing yoga and sweat pants were also starting to annoy her and she hated wearing them as often as she did now.

While her meditations were not centralized around her predicament and the several different diagnoses she theorized she could have and the threat of discovery by the Autobots, she thought about the tan and purple Decepticon who owned her heart. The fact that he was alive, well and waiting for their anticipated reunion had been the sole light in the dark for Cynthia. Instead of stress churning within her chest, he made her heart feel light and carefree. She missed so much about him from his smiles, laughs, kisses and voices. Cyndi felt blessed to have been able to see him and enjoy two hours alone with him before deciding it was wisest to not stick around for too long and heading back home. It was a tease of a meeting since she now missed him more than ever. She was more than tempted to try to call him and risk being exposed. As long as she'd be able to see him again, it was all that mattered.

A smile was plastered to her face as she thought about him and she was no longer focused on her problems. She shut her eyes and crossed her arms. She imagined herself in his arms and without a care in the world. Cynthia would have nothing but love and smiles for him as she'd gaze back at him and he would be probably be tickling her side or kissing her neck. Even doing something as innocent and sweet as cuddling with him was something she yearned for.

The woman still felt a little wary of being particularly intimate with him since she was still somewhat sore from the incident that almost tore them apart for good. But then a blush surfaced when she thought about that night in the barn. Her cheeks grew rosier and warmer at the memory. Once she regained her confidence and pushed the memory of the three temptresses out of her mind fully would she be eager to express her passion with him once more.

Cynthia jumped in her seat when the door suddenly opened up, heralding the entrance of her doctor. Now she was reddening in embarassment and she could only imagine what he'd be thinking if he saw the blush on her face. Nervously, she cleared her throat and ran a few fingers through her hair.

"Cynthia, how're you feeling?" the middle aged man greeted his patient. He chuckled lightly. "Besides the obvious I mean…"

"Not too bad, Doctor Archer,"Cyndi smiled at him. She shook his hand when he extended it to her.

"Good, good that's what I want to hear. So you called in to schedule an appointment for what was it exactly?" He looked over a piece of paper on his clipboard, briefly studying her stats.

"For about two months, I've felt tired. I've been going to bed early and sleeping in on days when I can but I still find myself sleepy and lethargic."

"Okay. Let me just ask you the same questions I always ask other patients… Do you smoke?"

"No."

"Do you drink?"

"Occasionally. The last time I had a drink was in July."

"Are you sexually active?"

"No." She hesitated for a few seconds before she replied and she hoped he wouldn't notice it.

"Do you take any sort of drugs?"

"No."

"Have you been under a lot of stress lately?"

Inwardly, she scoffed. That was an understatement.

"Yes, I have," she said. However, she was not going to give him the full truth. "I've been swamped with my college classes so that's contributed a lot to making my blood pressure go up. This year has been particularly trying for me with my education and my personal life."

Cynthia watched as he jotted down some notes on the clipboard. Idly she started to swing her legs back and forth on the table. She was happy she wasn't asked to strip down and put on one of those thin, exposing examination gowns. Neither did she know what else he was going to suggest or even test but she hoped it did not involve sticking anything into her.

"Okay, I'm going to listen to your heart and lungs and take your blood pressure," he said. "You know, the usual things…"

Cynthia flinched when the freezing, unfeeling metal stethoscope was slid down the back of her shirt and rested in between her shoulder blades. Goose bumps formed on her flesh and she couldn't suppress a little chill that shook her body. Cooperatively, she breathed in and out as he instructed. He then moved it to the front of her chest, just above her cleavage and inhaled and exhaled slowly as she had done before.

After that, Doctor Archer wrapped a velcro band around her right arm as he readied to measure her blood pressure. Cyndi ignored the constriction around her arm and the discomfort that shortly followed it. She had been squeezed by a Cybertronian before and this feeling she was dealing with now was nowhere near as uncomfortable as when she was in the servo of an alien robot. After fifteen seconds of the building pressure, it halted then it began to deflat around her.

"One hundred twenty over eighty, that's just right," he noted out loud. "Your heart and lungs sound healthy as well. To be on the safe side, I think it would be safe if we took a blood sample from you. Do you know if anemia runs in your family?"

As far as she could recall, both her mother and father's side of the family were relatively healthy as a horse for the most part. Both of her grandparents on her mother's side died within a few years of each other. Her maternal grandfather had a penchant for smoking and lung cancer ended up killing him. Her grandmother suffered from a nasty fall that resulted in her breaking her hip which led to a swift decline in her health that resulted in her developing a stroke which killed her four years later. Her father's parents actually divorced when Robert was ten, with his father moving out to Oregon when the separation was finalized, so she had no idea of exactly what sort of medical conditions he might've been prone to and passed down to his son and grandchildren. Her father's mother was killed in a car crash just a few months before Darien was born. If her grandparents had not fallen victim to vices and unfortunate, disastrous accidents, she might've known what illnesses and ailments she might be susceptible to.

"I honestly don't know," she said, feeling stupid for giving such an answer. "If my grandparents did not die early in accidents, maybe I would've had a better idea. I know my mom's father died of lung cancer a decade ago but I'm pretty sure that was from all the smoking he did for a good portion of his life."

"Oh, that's unfortunate," Archer said. "Now normally I would examine you but since you've complained of fatigue, I think it would be a safe bet to take some blood and see if we can find an answer in there. It's possible you have a deficiency of iron or some other vitamin in you that could be contributing to that exhaustion."

She was no fan of getting her blood taken (she asked herself who exactly would be fond of it) but she figured there would be no harm in having some being drained. It'd be better than just him telling her to get off the couch and exercise and dismissing her. Cyndi felt a little more confident in the test revealing something that she and Doctor Archer could work with and treat.

"I agree," the brunette nodded.

"Alright, wonderful!" he said as he put his clipboard down on a counter top. "Now you can either leave shortly after I take some blood and do whatever else you need to do today and I will call you tomorrow morning to give you the results. Or you can come back here in about a few hours and I'll discuss the results with you in person. It doesn't take as long as it used to in order to do an analysis on the blood."

Truthfully, she had nothing to do. She didn't have to pick up or drop off Mandy for work since she was going to be getting a ride with her coworker, Janine. Cyndi figured that maybe she could even just grab her books from her car and do some studying while she waited for her results in the lobby. She didn't feel like fighting the traffic by leaving and then having to come back a few hours later and fight the congestion all over again.

"I can stick around here," Cyndi decided. "I have some studying I have to do so I can do that while I wait."

"Very well, we'll do that then," the affable older man finalized. "Let me just grab some proper instruments and get to work on taking some blood." He turned to the door and walked over to it. "I'll be right back."

(two hours later)

Anxiously, Cyndi placed her books back into her backpack and hurried over to the spot where a nurse called her. She held the door open for her and guided her down the hall and back down to the examination room where she was a few hours earlier. Doctor Archer was nowhere to be seen as of yet but the nurse informed her that he was on her way into the room to share the results with her. The nurse left her in the room to await the doctor, closing the door behind her.

Luckily, she did not need to wait for more than five minutes when he entered the room. The expression of befuddlement on his face made her worried but she told herself to calm down and not overreact. Archer closed the door behind him and pulled up a stool so he could sit next to her in it.

"Well, I believe I found the source of your weight gain and your drowsiness," he said.

"Doctor Archer, is everything alright?" Cynthia pressed.

"I believe you have not been entirely truthful to me when I asked you those questions, Miss Preston."

Her eyes widened almost on cue at his words and her jaw dropped a little. Cynthia had no idea what he meant and she tried to recollect what specifics he asked her. For the most part, what she informed of him was true except for her losing her virginity over three months ago and withholding the information about the true source of her stress. She was at a loss as to what to say and she felt like an idiot for being unable to speak or ask him what he meant.

"What do you mean by that exactly?" the woman nervously and cautiously questioned.

Archer stared back at her as if she knew something but was not telling him. He wet his lips and turned his eyes back to the data on the piece of paper which had the results of her blood tested printed on. Then he diverted his full attention to her once more. Needless to say, if she was playing a game with him, he wasn't entirely amused by it. What he had to report was not a matter to be trifled with or blown off in his own opinion.

"Either you're the modern day Virgin Mary or you are sexually active," he went on. "I'm also fairly confident I did not get this mixed up with another patient's results as well. You're pregnant, Miss Preston."

Those were words she never expected to hear in her lifetime. Her heart nearly ceased to beat and she had to use all of her inner strength to stop herself from fainting and falling to the floor in a heap.

The young woman could literally feel her blood pressure skyrocket and if it rose any higher, she felt that she would end up giving herself a stroke or heart attack. It felt as if an inferno enveloped her body and made her face feel uncomfortably overheated. Her stomach was performing somersaults in her abdomen and her lungs increased their rate of air intake. Cynthia could feel a trembling coming on in her fingers and she folded her bands together to mask the involuntary movement.

It was completely and utterly impossible for her to be pregnant. There was just no way it could happen. She and her sweetheart were of a completely different species and their reproductive processes were not alike. There had to be a mistake somewhere, Doctor Archer had to have gotten the results mixed up with some other woman's. There were no other times that she was active. If she really was with child, it had to have been three months into its development. Surely if by some astronomically freakish and unlikely chance she really did conceive, wouldn't the embryo die and fail to be implanted before it could even really develop? It would be so mutated, deformed and genetically flawed… There would've been a miscarriage if it did start to develop and then died and Cynthia did not wake up to find blood all over her bedsheets. It was nothing but a bunch of nonsense to her.

"I-I-I'm pregnant?" she choked out. "How?! Doctor Archer, it's simply not possible! I can't be! You don't understand, it can't happen!"

"Settle down, Cynthia, it's alright…" he maintained his calm tone and demeanor. "What do you mean by you can't? Do you remember when you may have conceived?"

Of course she remembered but she refused to believe she really did have some half breed abomination growing in her womb. Cynthia was in no position to accept it as the truth just yet.

"I didn't!" she almost yelled. "I can't explain it!"

"Did you go out to a club or some other place a few months ago and did you experience any memory loss of that event?" the physician asked. With the way she was reacting, he was honestly starting to wonder if she did indeed tell the truth about her not having any sexual relations. "Do you think you may have been slipped a date rape drug into your drink when you weren't looking and you were taken advantage of while you were vulnerable?"

She stared back at him incredulously and with sheer disbelief. Cynthia fought the urge to scream at him and call him an idiot for even suggesting such a ridiculous scenario. Besides being drunk on the Fourth of July and not remembering much at all about that incident, she knew for a fact she was not out at questionable places and getting molested while under the influence of rohypnol or some other similar drug. She most certainly did have an idea of where this supposed child came from if this whole nightmare was actually real and she had a clear memory of it. No amount of alcohol or mind-tampering drugs could cloud it.

"No, I was not!" she proclaimed.

"Then how do you explain it?" he inquired. There was concern in his voice. "Would you like me to set up an appointment for you at the natal suite here in the hospital? Maybe if you've actually seen the sonogram you would believe it. You were also anemic which is possible to become while you are pregnant so that also contributed to your fatigue."

The longer the discovery was sinking in, the more and more it was making her sicker. She wanted to run to a bathroom, kneel before a toilet and throw up into it for hours upon hours. Her anxiety levels were now rising to levels that she thought were not possible and the terror she was feeling felt miniscule in comparison to the threat the Autobots posed. All she knew was that she had to get out and isolate herself from all other life in the universe. But before she would do that, she needed to see if she really was pregnant.

"Y-yes…" she stammered. "Make that appointment too because I have to get out of here!"

Frantically, she reached for her backpack and purse with the intention to hurry out of the hospital. Doctor Archer stood up and intercepted her before she could lunge for the door as he placed a hand on her arm.

"I can see you are bothered by this," he said in a low tone. "If you do not think you can deal with this, you do have options. You can terminate it."

Cynthia completely ignored all he had to say and she pulled her arm away. She opened up the door and jogged down the hall which led to the lobby. As she went along, tears blinded her vision but she refused to slow down and kept going.

(a half an hour later…)

Obviously, there was something seriously wrong but he had no clue or idea what it was that had her so rattled and hysterical. She got into her car with tears rolling down her face and sat in the driver's seat for fifteen minutes crying her eyes out before finally starting her vehicle up. For the briefest moment, her Autobot stalker had seriously considered asking her what was wrong. During the other times in which he watched her go about with her agenda, he had noticed that she sometimes seemed nervous and vigilant. But now, it seemed that she was having a fullblown panic attack or mental breakdown.

From a safe and inconspicuous distance, Bumblebee followed her through the busy streets of downtown Detroit. Her driving was somewhat erratic and would she would speed up or slow down at random intervals. Whatever was on her mind was affecting her ability to drive and for a moment, he wondered if she would cause an accident.

Despite her evident distress, Cyndi had managed to drive to a pharmacy a few minutes away from the hospital. The spirited, yellow Autobot watched her enter the shop and then come back out few minutes later with something in a plastic bag. He couldn't identify what was in the bag exactly but his curiosity was definitely piqued and seized for that matter. She got back into her car once more, still appearing shaken and mortified and began to drive again. Once she got on the move, he was not far behind her.

He trailed behind her up to the apartment complex where she lived. Bumblebee positioned himself on the far side of the parking lot where he could potentially stay out of her sight but where he could also watch her get out of her vehicle and await her next move. The organic woman clambered out of her car with her plastic bag holding whatever she purchased from the pharmacy. She dashed up the concrete stairwell up to the third floor where her apartment was located. After rounding a bend, Cynthia was out of his sight.

"Prowl, something definitely happened!" Bumblebee nearly yelled into his comm.

"Could you keep it down to a roar, Bumblebee?" the black and gold motorcycle said grumpily. "Maybe I should scream into your audio receptors or comm link and see if you like it,"

The youngest Autobot of the group would've rolled his optics at the comment if he wasn't in his vehicle mode. He let Prowl's words go through one audio receptor and out the other.

"Something is wrong," he reported. "The femme came out of the hospital, leaking coolant everywhere…"

"You mean she was crying?" Prowl asked, translating the term into a more accurate term for a Human.

"Yeah! I don't know what happened but she came out crying and sat in her car for a good while before starting it and going. Then she drove out to some shop and got something. I followed her back to her home and she made a beeline for her apartment."

On the other end of the line, Prowl pondered over just what might could've happened to make her behave in such a fevered and disturbed manner. Perhaps the doctor had diagonosed her with some sort of disease that spelt certain death for her. He could think of no other explanation why she would go to hospital and why she would exit bemoaning whatever fate had dished out to her. It was definitely the most interesting and curious thing that had happened since they first started studying her and Prowl would certainly tell Optimus about what Bumblebee had seen.

"Stay where you are and keep watching to see if anything else happens," the ninja bot instructed. "I'm going to report what you saw to Optimus."

"Alright, alright," said Bumblebee. "The suspense will be killing me you know."

(…)

"One more time…I swear this will be the last time…"

With shaking fingers, she picked up the plastic device that was no bigger than her thumb. There were three other ones in the garbage can, all with little red plus signs showing up on them. This one, she decided, would make it or break it. It would either be the final confirmation that Doctor Archer was wrong or right. Her breathing was heavy and laborious and she was terrified of turning it right side up as she let it sit for a few minutes so the results could process. Cynthia sat down in the bathtub so she wouldn't end up collapsing to the floor.

It had been an hour since she arrived back home and she was still as frantic and as shocked as when she left the hospital. She was so thankful Amanda had already left for work before she arrived back home. Darien was also still at school but he'd be home in about an hour or so. Cyndi didn't know how she was going to do it but she would have to pull off a convincing ruse for her brother. There was no way in Hell she was going to tell anyone about her situation yet especially when she refused to believe it herself.

She tried to steady her breathing but it was impossible to do. A few times already, she thought she was going to have a heart attack but such a thing never came. If it didn't already, she was sure it would happen as soon as she looked at the last pregnancy test result.

"If this is nothing but a dream please let it be negative and let me wake up," she murmured to herself. "This has to be a realistic dream. I'm sleeping right now and I'm trapped in this nightmare!"

Her eyes shut tightly for a few seconds as she flipped over the device so she could see either the blue negative sign or red plus sign. Cyndi was horrified of opening up her eyes because she had a very good feeling of what she would be presented with. Now it just seemed like she was prolonging the inevitable. She forced herself to open her eyes and act like a woman.

What she saw staring right back at her was not something her eyes were deceiving her with. It was positive like the other three. As much as she wanted to believe it wasn't happening, it was. She was indeed pregnant; there was no escaping or denying it now.

A sigh escaped from her mouth and she idly tossed the test into the garbage can with the others. Cynthia curled up at the bottom of the tub and quietly cried. Absolutely none of it made sense to her. What especially frightened her was that the child she was carrying was not even fully Human. The thought of a sonogram horrified her and she was already theorizing what the images would look like. Undoubtedly, the medical staff present would want to perform an abortion in that very room upon seeing a monster growing within her.

Earlier, she thought it was a little odd that her period didn't come around but she had blamed that on stress. She had heard plenty of accounts of women skipping their cycles for a few months while under such conditions and identified her lack of a cycle as that. She did not take into account pregnancy as the explanation for her missed periods. As for the weight gain, she pinned that all on her recently poor diet.

Currently, she had no idea what she was going to do just yet. All she knew was that she had to try to collect herself and not make Darien wonder what was going on. Before he'd get home from school, she'd hide the pregnancy tests and dispose of them properly so he wouldn't see them. She didn't know if she was going to tell anyone. She especially didn't know if she was going to keep it.

"_How am I going to tell Blitzwing about this?_" she interrogated herself inwardly. "_Can I tell him?_" Cynthia shuddered at the thought. "_No. No, he'd kill me._" Almost shyly, she slid her hand down to her pelvis and rubbed the steadily growing bump that she once assumed was fat from all the junk food she had been consuming. The fact that she was an expecting mother was still an unbelievable concept to her. "_I just need to think in peace for now…_"

* * *

><p><strong>Now I promise there is gonna be a good explanation for this to occur and it's not some magical bull crap that happened out of nowhere on some random whim of mine. Thanks for reading.<strong>


	60. Close Secret

**Hey everyone thank you for the reviews/alerts/faves! Now there's not too much to say about this chapter other than "oh God, more drama". And also just to warn anyone who may be sensitive about abortions and whatnot, you may not like this chapter too much. But other than that, there's nothing much more to note. Please enjoy and leave a review if it strikes ya fancy. :)**

Chapter 60 Close Secret

(apartment – 4:00pm)

Darien was fortunate that he had a spare key to his apartment to use when he saw that his sister was not answering the door. The car was out in the parking lot, indicating she was home unless if she was out but had opted to take a bus to wherever she was going to. Maybe she didn't hear him since she was busy cleaning or taking a nap. He reasoned with himself Cynthia was most likely snoozing since he was aware of how fatigued and drained she had been lately.

The young man closed and locked the door behind him. With a sigh of relief, he tossed his backpack aside, happy that he had decided to get the majority of his homework done during study hall instead of just taking a nap. He lifted his head up and looked around the area to seek out his sister. The living room was empty and as he walked further into his home, he could see she was not in the kitchen either.

"Hey, Cyndi," he called. "I'm home! I don't know if you heard me knocking on the door or not. Are you in here?"

He received no reply of any sort from her. Darien recalled that she said she had a doctor's appointment earlier that day but he highly doubted if it would chew up a huge portion of the day. Unless if it was something very serious and the doctor required her to be admitted, he didn't see her spending her whole day at the hospital. If she was admitted, she would've let him know that she would not be coming homing and what exactly her situation was. With each passing second, he was becoming more worried and anxious about where she was.

"Cyndi?"

Deciding to try to find her, he walked towards the back half of the apartment where the siblings' rooms and the bathroom was located. The first of those four rooms was the bathroom and he pushed open the door, seeing that it was partially ajar. At first glance, he could see she didn't appear to be in that room when he saw she wasn't on the toilet or standing in front of the sink.

"Darien."

He almost jumped upon hearing her voice. Most certainly, he did hear Cynthia in there but he did not see her. Darien walked into the bathroom and looked in the tub, seeing her lying down in it. She was tiredly looking back at her brother.

"Cyndi…" he said after staring at her in confusion for a few seconds. "Why are you lying at the bottom of the tub? Are you okay?"

"I was taking a little nap," she said. "I felt ill and I thought I was going to throw up. I feared I wasn't going to make it up if I lied down in my bedroom so I camped out in the tub."

To see her like this was disturbing to Darien. He never saw her exhibiting bizarre behavior like this before and he didn't know what to think was going on really. His worry grew and he knelt down beside her.

"I thought you went to the doctor for a check up?" he wondered as his face contorted and wore an expression of concern.

"I did go and I came back a little bit ago," Cynthia replied. "They did a blood test on me so that may be why I feel a little off… As it turns out, I'm anemic."

"How in the heck did you become anemic?"

"I don't know. All I know is that I'm deficient in iron."

"Well, what, that means you have to eat some protein, right? Eat some meat or something?"

"Yes. I should be taking some more vitamins anyway and I know I haven't been taking good care of myself lately."

"Do you want me to help you out of the tub and take you to your bedroom? It can't be that comfy in there."

She smiled weakly at her youngest sibling. Cynthia reached up and patted his right cheek.

"You're cute when you worry," she chuckled. "Whoever gets a hold of you is a lucky lady."

Darien ignored her comments altogether and leaned in closer so he could hoist her up onto her feet. She took his hand and she forced herself to get up, using his hand as leverage and support. Cynthia stepped out of the bathtub and stood before her brother, looking directly him in the eye.

"You need to take better care of yourself, Cyndi," he said in a stern tone. Darien felt awkward for talking in such a way before his oldest sister. Usually she was the one who lectured and guided him. "I'm worried about you. I know Mandy is too and I'm sure she let you know as well."

"Don't you worry about me," she said, trying to assuage his anxieties. "The doctor just said I gained some weight and I'm a little anemic. A little, Darien… I'm not going to die. I'm going to be alright. We're all just a little stressed and strained from worrying about getting caught."

"Yeah, well, Mandy and I aren't the ones suffering from it all. We know how much you miss Blitzwing too and that's been affecting you."

Cynthia almost felt blessed that she was not speaking to the triple changer lately due to Megatron's orders. If she had been in frequent contact with Blitzwing like she was a few months earlier, she'd be even more of a nervous wreck if that was even possible. He would easily be able to detect her panic and sooner or later, he would get the truth out of her. His reaction to her conception was something she did not even want to briefly think about because she knew that he immediately would suspect she had slept with another man to gain revenge on him for what he almost did to her. Undoubtedly, he would become so furious that he would either kill her in a fit of rage or abandon her. He especially would not believe that he somehow impregnated her when it was explicitly obvious that it was impossible for them to have children together. Hybrids were impossible and were only to happen in some laboratory of horrors operated by some warped and depraved mad scientist, thinking himself to be a new kind of Doctor Frankenstein who sought to defile and corrupt nature and play God.

"We should be happy with what we've been given," she said. "For now, we don't have to deal with the Decepticons. But we also made a trade off with the Autobots possibly following us around. I thought I saw one of them a few times but I always shrugged it off, thinking I was losing my mind or seeing things."

"I have to say I wish things could go back to the way they were before we got entangled with them," Darien confided to her. "I miss it." He wet his lips and looked down in dejection and shame. "I'm…I'm afraid Cyndi. We can't have normal lives anymore and we're stuck with serving Megatron until we keel over!"

"It's my fault and my fault alone, Darien. But I promise that I will find a way to free you and Mandy, somehow, some way. That's the very least I could do for you to repay you for what I did."

"Cyndi, please don't talk like that. I know you did your best to keep us protected and out of his sight but it wasn't enough. Honestly, I am more than ready to turn on them but I know how much you love Blitzwing. I still can't believe you took him back and I'm still mad at him for hurting you and abusing your trust. Cynthia, are you sure he won't turn on Megatron and join the Autobots? That's the only other choice we have besides betraying all of them."

"Look, Darien, I don't want to talk about him or that option because I already asked him if he could do it. He can't and it's as simple as that. Things are no longer easy and everything is complicated anymore. We have to seriously think about the choices we make and try to consider every single consequence that may come from them. We're already in enough trouble because of me but if we can avoid more tragedies, I'm all for it. For now, can we just not think of it?"

The boy sighed and paused and almost looked as if he was mulling over Cynthia's request. He was silent and inactive for a few seconds before he nodded his head, agreeing to her terms. She breathed a sigh of relief at his nonverbal reply.

"Can I ask you one thing?" he asked.

"Yes, of course you can," said Cynthia. As long as it wasn't a question asking about why she seemed to be getting plump and whether she could try to convert Blitzwing, she didn't care.

"What's for dinner?"

That question was relieving and satisfying to hear. She had almost forgotten of how hungry she until he asked her what dinner would be for the evening. Almost as if on cue, her stomach gurgled.

"I guess we'll figure out what to cook if we rummage through the fridge," she said. "Come on, let's go see what we have."

(Decepticon lair – 9:00pm)

"No, I don't zhink zat it needs any more flowers! All zat pollen irritates my olfactory sensors anyvay!"

"But femmes love flowers! Cyndi loves yellow lilies and vhen it gets varmer out, ve must plant some around ze barn for her!" Random tried his hardest to gingerly turn the pages in a gardening book that he had found (in reality, he stole it from a bookstore while using his holoform). He was busy trying to find the right flowers Cynthia liked so he could acquire them and plant them to make their retreat all the more inviting and wonderful for her. "Did she say zat she liked pansies?"

"Jou are ze pansy here!" Hothead bellowed. He tossed the book aside, becoming fed up with reading up on it while it was November and not even close to spring. "Ve must vorry about ozher zhings! Ve must put a fireplace in zhere so it can be varm during ze vinter."

"Idiot, it's a vooden barn," Icy hissed. "Ve'll burn it all to ze ground and all our vork vill be for naught. I'm not letting zat happen to my nest on my vatch."

"Jour nest?!"

"Yes, mine… Jou are too inconsiderate, brutish and stupid to even zhink about refurbishing it. Ze only zhing jou vant to use zat for is to court her in. I am ashamed of myself zat I courted her in zat flizhy... Ze next time ve do it, it vill be in a clean, comfortable and appropriate setting!"

"Look who's talking!"

"Stop fighting!" Random complained. "Ze sale associate chased me down ze street vhen he saw me take ze book and I don't vant it ruined!"

He could almost hear Icy and Hothead snarling at each other like warring dogs within the back of his helm. Random fought back the other two since he was sick of the bickering and he wanted to continue looking through the book. While all three of them wanted to continue with the barn's remodeling they all had different ideas and desires with what to do next now that the basic structural and furnishing issues were taken care of.

"It has to be comfy and pretty," said Random. On his knees and servos, he made his way over to the spot where the abused book lied. He then sat back up on his rump and continued to sift through the pages. "Ooh, I'm very sure she likes tulips too! According to ze book, zhey are some of ze very first flowers zat come up in spring!" He giggled to himself. "Zis is actually kind of fun!"

He didn't care if Hothead wasn't interested at all in gardening. Icy patiently yet unwillingly dealt with the topic of horticulture but like Hothead, Random didn't care what he thought either.

"I'll really become her favorite vhen she sees ze beautiful garden I planted for her," the jack-o-lantern face smirked.

"Zis is not a competition!" Icy said in a frustrated voice.

"Jou're jealous because jou can't compete vith me. I am far more handsome, stronger and desirable zhan jou are."

"Jou are as stupid and childish as ze ozher one! Ugh, jou have no idea vhat I vould give to have jou two permanently purged from zis body…"

"Like jour ozher optic? Zhen jou vill look like an owl! Ahahahaha!"

Before an even larger fight could break out between the three personalities, Blitzwing turned around when he heard the door to his quarters open up. He turned around to find Starscream walking in.

"Did jou ever hear of knocking?" Hothead growled. "Vhat do jou vant?"

"I could hear you fighting with yourself so you could say I had to see what was going on exactly." As he approached his younger brother, he could see the book he was still holding in his servo. "Blitzwing, I never knew that you gained an interest in the local flora." Hothead again tossed it aside when he remembered he was holding it again thanks to Random. He grumbled angrily to himself, feeling as if his masculinity was being insulted and questioned. "What have you been up to lately? We've all noticed you have been disappearing for half a solar cycle nearly everyday for awhile now. I've seen you carry odd things into your quarters like furniture and other…oddities."

"I have nozhing to do vith my time so I decided to take on a little project to combat ze boredom," Icy explained.

"You haven't been on the Autobot's radar either nor have any Humans reported seeing you so it seems like you haven't been up to too much mischief lately. What kind of project is it?"

"It's none of jour fragging business!" Hothead nearly screamed. His frustration with the other two faces and Starscream's questioning was seriously annoying him at this point in time. "It's nozhing jou should vorry about!"

"Take a chill pill, please. It was just a simple question. It's not like I have an ulterior motive or anything."

"Jou alvays have an ulterior motive, so no!"

"Well you're planning something if you're reading through a gardening book." Starscream smiled and held back a brief stream of laughter.

"Remodeling…" Icy admitted rather sheepishly and quietly. "Reconstruction of sorts…" He was not very keen on admitting to Starscream what he was really doing. No doubt he would be chastised and criticized for his project.

"I can see that you've done nothing to this room of yours and you are absent a lot so you must be doing that work somewhere else. Am I right or am I right?"

Blitzwing glowered at the seeker. He averted his gaze for a few moments as if he was contemplating on sharing the news with Starscream or to keep him in the dark as he preferred. Almost too easily, he could imagine the air commander destroying the barn and ruining all the efforts he made in bettering it. But simultaneously, he had a feeling that there was something different about Starscream since they had returned from destroying MECH's base of operations in Canada's far north. He didn't know what was different exactly and he could not put his digit on it yet but he knew that something was amiss. Regardless, Blitzwing resolved to remain on guard with him and not to necessarily give him his trust once more. Perhaps if he had rightfully won his trust back then maybe he would even acknowledge him as his brother once again.

"Do jou remember zat barn vhere jou found Cyndi and I vhen I vas ill?" he said.

Almost instantly, Starscream knew what Blitzwing had been occupied with as soon as he posed him with that question. His optics widened momentarily at the revelation. With Blitzwing saying that, he quickly jumped to another conclusion that made his spark quicken and lurch.

"You've chosen her?" Starscream assumed.

Blitzwing nodded his helm. He felt uncomfortable disclosing it to Starscream but he saw there was no point in lying or trying to hide it. Sooner or later, he would've found out. Not only that, the other Decepticons would also know in time.

"I zhink I have," he said.

"Don't you think that you're taking this much too quickly?" the second-in-command suggested. "It's normal for us to take many stellar cycles to decide upon a mate in our kind."

"She doesn't have many stellar cycles to vait for me, Starscream. I vill still vait a few stellar cycles to see if ve still love each ozher very much to make her comfortable but I've made up my mind."

"You will only end up with your spark broken and shattered. I'm not telling you to abandon her. It's alright to at least remain on friendly terms with her but I think you're not thinking properly. Sooner or later, we will retake Cybertron and we will be its rightful lords. You can choose whichever femme your spark desires if you just wait for that time. At least they will live as long as you and you'll be able to have sparklings."

With each word that came from his mouth, Blitzwing became more and more angry and impatient with being lectured like this. His servos had curled up into tight fists and he ground his dental plates. Icy managed to stay upfront though, forcing back Hothead.

"Do jou not zhink I tried zat already?" he hissed as contempt and frustration filled his words. "Blackarachnia zhrew my gratitude and feelings back at my faceplate vhen I told her how I felt about her. Anozher femme only remained vith me for a few solar cycles before she left me saying I vas 'too complicated'. Starscream, zhere vere a few ozhers besides zhose two but none lasted as long as or made me feel loved zhan my relationship vith an organic femme. Yes, perhaps I vould've found a match amongst my species but I have grown tired of failures and false hopes. I am still dealing vith and coming to terms regarding ze consequences of choosing a Human but I vill accept zem. She loves me and I love her. She vill not live long but I cannot help to not feel zhese zhings for her."

"You make no sense…" Starscream muttered. He shook his helm in disbelief as he tried to make sense of Blitzwing's reasoning. "She cannot give you what fully desire!"

"How do jou know of vhat I desire?! Ve have both changed vhen ve joined Megatron zhough jou did not change for ze better at all… Avhile ago, I vould've asked you for jour counsel and advice but ve are not brozhers anymore. I do not care vith vhat jou have to say and neizher do I understand vhy jou seem concerned about my future happiness!"

Hothead could not be restrained anymore and he took Icy's place. He took a step closer to Starscream who ended up backing up.

"Jou mind jour own business and I vill mind my own!" the red face stated. "I don't see jou courting any femmes anyvay, so who are jou to tell me who to choose and vhat I should do?!"

Forcefully, he shoved Starscream out of his quarters. The seeker stumbled backwards a few steps before he fell onto his rump. He tilted his helm upwards so he could still lock optics with Blitzwing who was standing in the doorway.

"If jou really vant to know vhat I am making," said Random as he unexpectedly took control, "it's a comfy, cozy, varm, lovely, little nest!" He chuckled and his grin expanded. "Now, no more interrupting or I vill bite jou again!"

Blitzwing turned his back on him and the doors automatically shut behind him. Starscream sat dumbfounded on the floor for a few moments, still staring at the spot where the triple changer was standing. He had to shut his mouth when he realized his jaw was hanging loose in shock. Subconsciously, he rubbed the somewhat noticeable patch of discolored hide on his neck where Random had bitten him months earlier. It was no longer as prominent as it was but if one looked close enough, they could see the imperfection.

After sitting on the floor for two minutes, he got up and turned to his right to make his way to his own quarters. He did not need to look ahead too far ahead when he saw a fellow Decepticon. It especially did not need to take him long to identify him since his paint job was a deep, vibrant crimson.

"You know that one Earth phrase 'bros before hoes'?" Knock Out smiled smarmily. "Looks like Blitzwing believes in the opposite of that, huh, Starscream?"

"Shut up, Knock Out!" Starscream ordered rather loudly.

He pushed past the medic and stomped down the hallway, leaving behind a snickering Knock Out.

(November 5th, hospital – 1:00pm)

"Oh, relax, honey," the nurse said in a soothing, motherly tone to the young woman who was reclining on the examination table. "I'm sure everything will be alright. I know it comes as a huge shock for most ladies your age. You're young too so that just helps your chances of having a healthy baby."

Cynthia was anything but calm and relaxed at the moment. She ignored the cool chill of the gel on her lower stomach that made goose bumps form on her flesh. Nervously, she watched as the technician booted the ultrasound machine up. A minute or two later, it was running properly while the nurse who was speaking to her sat adjacent to the table she lied on. Her heart was racing so rapidly within her chest that she was sure that they wouldn't even be able to hear the fetus' heart beat over the loud clamor of her own. There was a healthy chance the nurse had seen plenty of nervous, new mothers in her years of working in the field but Cyndi was pretty confident she was the most terror stricken patient she had seen. So far, she was hoping her fear wouldn't rouse suspicion in the nurse and other staff members but having a half alien child growing in your uterus was not something that happened all too often.

"Dear, if you keep this up, you may just give yourself a heart attack," the nurse chuckled softly. She was trying to get Cynthia settle down. "I'm sure you have absolutely nothing to worry about."

"I-it came as a huge surprise to say the least," Cynthia admitted.

"Mmhmm, that's why Doctor Archer sent that referral to us so you could see the ultrasound for yourself. Best thing to do is remain optimistic, honey. On the bright side, at least you didn't find out you were expecting until you were almost into the third trimester!"

She wanted to scream out to the nurse at the top of her lungs that she was terrified of what she would be seeing in the ultrasound. What had frightened Cyndi the most was that she had absolutely no idea what to expect. Cynthia was sure that if she saw a fetus with one of Blitzwing's faces, she would die right on that table. At least she would die and she would be spared of the tabloids and stigma.

But if she did end up surviving by some freak chance, she'd promptly go to a clinic and seek to have her pregnancy terminated. More and more, she started to become convinced that this was most likely the easiest and smartest way to remedy the situation. She would abort the fetus and never tell a soul about her pregnancy. It would be something only she would know about and it would remain that way. Everyone would just jump to the untrue conclusion she had a secret one night stand with some stranger anyway if she told anyone. It was a pity that before she had met Blitzwing the idea of being married and having a family of her own appealed to her. Now it just seemed that reality was torturing and taunting her with some sick, impossible perversion of her previous desires.

"It's all ready to go," the technician announced.

"Good, I can barely contain my curiosity," the nurse smiled.

"_Ma'am, you have no idea what the Hell might be staring back at you on that screen,_" Cyndi miserably added within the security of her mind.

The nurse stretched her arm out to grab the scanner that would be run over the gel that covered her pelvic region. Tightly, Cyndi shut her eyes and turned her head away from the screen that would soon enough display a picture of what lied tucked away within her depths. She could feel the device press onto her flesh. Then she felt the gel give way beneath the pressure of the solid and disperse across her skin even more. There was virtually no courage and confidence in her and she still refused to open her eyes and catch a glimpse of her child on the monitor. At any moment, the optimistic, kindly nurse would start screaming in bloody murder.

About twenty seconds after she felt the scanner touch down on her pelvis, she heard a noise. It sounded very rapid but it definitely had a distinct pattern that was all too familiar to her. The sound of a heartbeat filled Cyndi with curiosity and a tiny bit of bravery which encouraged her to open her eyes and face the monitor.

There was an unmistakable shape of a fetus being displayed on the screen. Knowing that she was pregnant was one thing but actually seeing the tiny organism blossoming in her womb was something that blew her out of the water and hit her like a ton of bricks. The fear and dread she was experiencing had nearly left her in that instant as she stared dumbfounded at the screen.

"See?" the nurse grinned as she faced the patient. "Everything seems to be okay. Looks like your belly reflects the baby's growth too... You'll be hitting four months in a few weeks. Congratulations, Miss Preston."

Temporarily, she set aside the wonder she was experiencing upon seeing the child. With a hard, studious stare, she gazed upon the screen on the lookout for anything odd or abnormal that stood out. She had no idea what to expect to see in an ultrasound of a fetus that was around three months into its development but she had done her share of research since she discovered she was pregnant. Cynthia could make out a faint outline of the face, even seeing a tiny nose jutting out. She also spotted some ribs and the spinal cord that appeared to have a rigid and expected casing of bones around it already. The head didn't seem deformed or worrisome in anyway. As she looked on further, she could make out arms and legs too.

The nurse continued to scan along the perimeter of her uterus to get as many angles and viewpoints of the baby as she could. Cynthia still studied the screen intently and silently, hoping and praying nothing unusual would be spotted.

"Everything is perfect so far," she announced. "The development is going along smoothly and nothing looks weird or requires attention from the doctor." She attempted to be lighthearted and personable again to her patient. "What did you think was in you, a little goblin?"

"Oh, I just worry is all…" Cynthia weakly answered. "But are you sure everything is alright?"

"Yes. You're lucky to have a healthy baby on your hands."

She was exuberant and thrilled to find out everything was normal and it turned out be healthy but something else was nagging at her now. It did not make sense to her that although she was Human, the child should've been only half. For the briefest moment, she doubted herself, wondering if she had somehow betrayed her extraterrestrial beau and slept with another man that had resulted in this conception. Cyndi then discredited her wild thought, knowing that she was very certain she would remember it if such an incident did happen. All she could do was draw a blank and remain dumbfounded internally at her sheer luck that the nurse didn't find anything that pointed to a non-Human parent.

Tiredly, she looked back at the monitor. The sound of the heartbeat was still going on. It was a huge sigh of relief for her but Cynthia was still at a loss of whether to continue her pregnancy. Aside from the slight case of anemia and weight gain she had acquired as a result of her pregnancy, it wasn't adversely affecting her physically. Mentally, it taxed her but she was still trying to accept the fact that she even could conceive with her love. But more than anything else, she was just happy and felt as if a great weight was lifted from her shoulders now that she saw everything was normal. It was almost too normal but it soothed her a great deal. The knowledge that she wouldn't have a face-swapping, little cretin bursting out of her chest at the end of her term was a blessing for her.

"It's still too early to tell if it's a boy or girl, right?" she asked the nurse.

"We could try to find out," the older woman replied, "but it's still a little early to make a good guess. Within a month or so, we'll be able to give you a better answer."

She could care less whether she was going to have a son or daughter. It may not even matter if she decided to go with the termination. Perhaps she'd never know of its sex if she went down that path. Cynthia still persisted in staring intently at the monitor, unsure of what to exactly think.

"Do you want me to print up a little picture of your sonogram?" the nurse chimed in.

Cyndi didn't know how to reply or what to say for a few seconds. She felt incredibly stupid for causing that delay but then spoke up.

"Yes, please, I would," she said.

(one hour later)

Amanda lifted her head up when she heard the door unlock and then open up a second later. She spotted the figure of her sister walking into the apartment and shutting the door behind her. The blonde didn't move from her seat on the couch but she kept her eyes on Cynthia.

"How was your doctor's appointment?" she pressed. "Are your iron levels any better?"

The middle Preston sibling was told that Cynthia was going back to Doctor Archer to get some blood drawn to monitor her iron levels. Regarding the pregnancy, she was completely in the dark about it. Cyndi had made sure to properly conceal any hints that she was expecting. She even deleted her browser history on her laptop and tore up her receipt that showed she had purchased pregnancy tests a few days prior. As for the tests themselves, she had disposed of them literally minutes after she had used them. To be extra cautious, she had tossed them straight into the dumpster across the parking lot where no one would even be able to tell whose trash was whose.

"They're still a little low but they're better than a few days ago," said Cyndi.

"I don't know much about physiology and whatnot, actually I almost failed those subjects in high school," Amanda went on, "but it's weird he wanted you back after a few days."

"I thought it was weird too. I guess he was worried since they were kinda low."

"Well, you've been acting a little weird for awhile. I thought I threw on a few pounds lately but you have me beat there too."

"Gee, thanks." The elder sister glared at her sibling and turned her back on her, making her way into the kitchen. Now she had no desire to even talk with her. She blamed that on the hormones.

"Oh, come on. It wasn't like I called you an obese land whale or anything like that."

"I don't want to talk about my weight issues right now. You don't need to tell me I packed on some pounds."

"Whatever."

Cynthia scoffed at Mandy's monotonous reply. She grumbled grumpily to herself and dug through the refrigerator. It did not take her long to settle on having some grapes that were sitting in a bowl. Lifting the bowl up, she cradled it one arm and with her available hand, plucked a grape off and stuffed it into her mouth. Then she took a seat at the kitchen table all the while quietly eating.

The question of whether to keep the fetus or abort it was by far the hardest dilemma she was presented with in her life. Cynthia was now regretting saying "yes" to taking a picture of the child home with her and stuffing it within the confines of her wallet. She was beginning to think that it was biasing and corrupting her decision making process in this extremely serious matter. Even though she was no longer in that examination room and nowhere near the ultrasound machine, she could've sworn she could still hear the palpitations of her child's heart in her ears. Truthfully, she did not even know if they would even detect a heartbeat since only she and she alone knew of its parentage. The session had completely exceeded her expectations and had made her nightmares a seemingly silly and unnecessary thought now. All appeared to be normal and typically expected. But that also didn't mean that something could go horribly wrong further down the road as the child's development dragged on.

Cynthia saw that she did have some time to mull over her ultimate choice but she felt as if she needed to know what she was going to do within a day or two. The longer it remained on her mind and unsolved, it put her under greater stress. To gain some sort of closure or peace of mind, she first needed to know whether to say "yes" or "no" to the continuation.

"_What will happen if I decide to keep it?_" the woman interrogated herself. "_Dad will probably disown me and have an aneurism when he finds out who the father is…but that'll only happen if Blitzwing somehow lets me live if I ever tell him. The only person who would be happy would be Mom because she knows Amanda is never going to give her grandkids and I'm pretty sure Darien is also light years away from getting a wife and settling. It won't matter if I give birth before or after I present myself to Megatron again too because he and all the others will look at me like they've never seen a pregnant woman before. On second thought, that's probably right… I wish I could talk to Blitzwing about this. He'd probably end up getting furious and push me down some stairs to make me miscarry. He'd never believe me either._"

She missed him so much especially during this difficult and scary time. There were a few moments when she was tempted to contact him and arrange a meeting at the barn so she could present the situation to him. Any reassuring embraces, kisses and words from him would be treated like gold to her in this time. But she knew what would actually happen if she did organize a meeting between them and she knew it would not end up prettily. Their relationship would be called off for good by his declaration and he would force her to raise the child by herself. He would not acknowledge them or spare a passing glance to them.

The possibility of him abandoning her and their child frightened her beyond belief. It would break her heart and torture her until the day she died. She also felt it would not be fair for the child to experience prejudice and resentment from their own father as they would grow up.

"_That's right, that's another thing to ponder over,_" she continued. "_They would be pressed into Megatron's service as well. They would be born into slavery and I would have absolutely no say about it… But if I did decide to go through my term without abortion, I could also have them adopted. There're so many possible situations that could happen and so many different ways this could go. I will have to come up with an answer sooner rather than later because I cannot be seven months in and then decide to terminate. And I'm still trying to figure out how this is even possible! I should just tell them the truth and have that medic try to find an answer… On second thought, no. He'll just use me as a lab mouse. I have to tell someone but I can't. It's going to slowly drive me insane but no one can know about this._"

"Hey, Cyndi, I'm sorry," Mandy suddenly said. "I'm just high strung right now.

Cynthia stuffed another grape into her mouth. She was barely aware that her sister was in the apartment alongside and she was so engrossed in her thoughts she didn't even hear her. Quietly, she stirred in her seat to make herself comfortable since she had a feeling she might be sitting in that chair a long time.

"Cyndi, please don't be mad at me," Amanda called out again. "I goofed up, okay?"

At last, she remembered she was in the living room. Cyndi looked over her shoulder for an instant and then turned back around.

"It's fine, Mandy, don't worry about it," she said.

"Are you okay?" Cynthia could hear her get up off the couch and make her way over to the kitchen table. A few seconds after that, she was standing right next to her. "You seem a little off."

"I'm okay."

"You don't look or sound like it."

"Well, I am anemic."

"I can tell something else is bothering you. You know that you can talk to me about whatever it is, right?"

"Amanda, I am tired and stressed out. I would like nothing more than to have some peace and quiet so that I may think."

During the entire exchange, Cyndi did not even make an effort to maintain eye contact with Amanda. That alone had convinced the younger sister that perhaps she really did need to be alone. A part of her didn't want to leave her be for too long since she cared for her and her wellbeing but she also saw it was for the best.

"I'll give you a break," Amanda said after a few seconds of silence. "I'll be on the couch if you need me."

Before she could walk away and place some distance back between herself and her sister, she heard Cyndi stir in her chair. She halted in her footsteps and turned around to face her. Cynthia was staring right back at her.

"Let me ask you one question," the brunette murmured.

"Sure…" Mandy didn't know what to say for a moment. "What is it?"

"How would you feel if we had a fourth person live here with us for awhile?"

"You're talking about Blitzwing, right? Well we already put up with him living with us for a month and we all managed to survive. Are you thinking about having him live with us again?"

"Maybe…"

"I'd deal with it. Then I'd have to hide my toothbrush and get a lock on my door to keep him out of my room. Maybe get an extra pair of earmuffs to wear when I go to sleep too."

Mandy then left the kitchen to make her way back to her spot in the living room. Cynthia still remained in her seat. Once more she pushed another grape into her mouth.

"_You will need earmuffs for sure when crying wakes you up at four in the morning,_" she noted.


	61. Skirmish

**Hello guys thank you for the reviews/follows/faves! So for this chapter, it's kind of a break of sorts from the pregnancy drama and has quite a bit of action and fighting. I gotta admit it was fun to write it and I felt some robots beating the shit out of each other was much needed. But anyway, please enjoy and leave a review if you wish!**

Chapter 61 Skirmish

(November 22nd, forty miles north of Detroit – 2:30am)

For the umpteenth time, Mrs. Adams awoke to hear her garbage cans being jostled about. Upon being awakened by the commotion, fury poured into her being and she gritted her teeth silently. Her balled up fists clutched her bed sheets ferociously and she restrained herself from screaming out in anger and frustration.

"Oh for the love of God..!" she muttered to herself.

She rolled over onto her side, bumping next to the slumbering figure of her husband. Mr. Adams was a heavy sleeper much to her chagrin and annoyance. If someone had dropped a drum set on the bedroom floor, the commotion would not wake him up let alone even make him stir. The middle aged woman set a hand on his side and began to push on and shake him.

"Paul!" Adele whispered harshly. "Paul, get up!"

"What time is it?" her husband said groggily a few seconds later.

"It's late, that's all I know! Listen!"

The racket originating from outside was still going on. It was obvious that something was rustling and foraging through the garbage they set out before they turned in for the night nearly four hours earlier. Mr. and Mrs. Adams both sat up in their bed trying to identify anymore sounds that could help them identify who or what was sifting through their trash.

"Raccoons," Adele sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Or a bear for all we know."

"Whatever it is, it's not ruining the furniture we put out," her husband stated.

Groaning, the man left the comfort of his warm, plush bed and knelt down beside it. He reached beneath the bed and pulled out a rather long and large carrying case of sorts. Mr. Adams unbuckled it and opened it up, revealing a shotgun within.

"I really do hope that someone will pick them up before the garbage truck comes by tomorrow morning to take it," the woman continued. "That was my brother's arm chair and footstool…"

Paul said nothing as he struggled to see in the dark. He felt his way around the shotgun, checking to see if the safety was on. A small sigh of relief escaped through his lips when he saw that the safety mechanism was on. There was no way he was going to turn it off unless if he was outside; his wife would have his head on a silver platter if he blasted a hole through their bedroom wall.

"Are you coming out or staying in?" he asked her as he walked over to the door.

"I'm coming with you of course!" Adele asserted. "I'll hold a flashlight so you can see."

She opened the drawer within her nightstand and pulled out the flashlight she had within. Adele tested the battery power on it to check on its luminosity and strength. Upon seeing that it was bright enough to potentially blind the critter, she turned the flashlight off and hurried over to join Paul at his side.

The couple walked down the stairs to their first floor. They crossed their living room and attempted to peek through their curtains to possibly see if they could see any other animal life or activity in their yard but could see none. With inaudible footsteps, they made their way to their foyer and towards their front door.

Adele turned on the flashlight now that they were about to step out into the darkness of their property. Mr. Adams turned the safety on his gun off and unlocked the door a second later. He opened it up and then unlocked the outer, glass storm door. His eyes scanned the yard, on the lookout for anything furry streaking across it or for an eye shine of any sort.

The two Humans finally left the comfort of their home and stepped out into the chilly fall night. Adele gently closed the storm door behind her so it wouldn't cause a loud racket when it shut by itself. She shined the light up ahead to the corner of their property where they had placed their garbage and her late brother's furniture. Silently, she swore to herself when she remembered she had some rather large, old pine trees dotting the perimeter of her property and conveniently, the area where the garbage cans were.

"Let's not get too close, Paul," she advised. "I can't see past the trees and if it's a bear and we spook it, it'll maul us!"

"Shotgun versus bear, shotgun wins especially if you get him in the face," Paul retorted.

"You were terrible at the shooting range too, dear…"

Paul rolled his eyes at her comment and pressed on. It was ironic that while he liked guns and enjoyed going to the shooting range, he was a rather pitiful and inaccurate marksman.

The disturbances were still continuing and the couple could've sworn that they heard muttering like someone was talking to someone. They stopped in their tracks as they got closer, realizing that something large was indeed rummaging through their trash. As their eyes further adjusted to the darkness, they could see a red glow being cast on the area where the huge critter was standing.

A terrifying reality then slammed into Adele and she turned off her flashlight immediately. The woman wrapped her arms around Paul's waist, trying to get him to stop. Her husband looked over his shoulder, shooting her an incredulous and flabbergasted expression.

"What're you doing?!" he whispered harshly.

As soon as he spoke in that tone, Adele's blood turned to ice in her veins as she saw a pair of evil-looking eyes looking back at her through a small space between the trees. It was now aware of their presence, staring directly at them. She could've sworn that she could see it smiling mischievously at her, looking too much like a naughty child that had been caught red handed stealing cookies from a cookie jar.

At last, Paul could see how mortified his wife was. Hesitantly, he turned around to face the extremely large and hairless "raccoon" that was staring back at him. The organics and the metal titan engaged in this tense staring contest of sorts for what seemed to last a millennium.

"Jou said it vas free," Random chuckled. "Jou put a sign on zis chair saying it vas free and I decided to investigate! I like it and I zhink I vill take it!"

"Oh my God…" Paul stammered. "It's one of those robot monsters from space!"

Blitzwing's smile disappeared and Random's face was reformed into a sad and hurt frown.

"Aww, zat hurt my feelings…" he said, sounding offended and innocent. "I know I can act very naughty but I'm not a monster. I can be very nice and sveet like a little puppy if I vanted to!"

"Adele…" the man whispered to his wife of thirty years, "I want you to slowly walk back to the house. Call the police and tell them we have a problem. Something tells me this guy is one of those monsters who kill people and attack Detroit every now and then…"

Blitzwing's faces swapped with Hothead coming up to the front. He growled at them and lowered his cannon barrels, pointing them directly at the Humans.

Paul raised his shotgun, aiming for the triple changer's eyes. Both males stared each other down, almost forgetting about the fearful woman standing behind her husband. They refused to look away from one another and expected their opponent to take the first shot at any moment.

"Fine, take it!" Paul shouted. "Take the furniture and go! Get off my property!"

"Heh, jou see jou are miserably outgunned," Hothead snorted.

"I can tell you're compensating for something. Now take the furniture and get lost!"

His optics widened beneath his visor at the boldness and challenging inflection of the Human's reply. He ground his dental plates and glowered fiercely at the smaller lifeform. Blitzwing pushed through the trees and intentionally kicked the Adams' garbage cans over, spilling the putrefying contents onto the ground.

"Paul, let's get out of here now," Adele urged as she tugged on his arm.

"Jou can run, femme, but I have a bone to pick vith jour mate!" the red face snarled. "No one insults my mechliness and gets avay vith it!"

Before Adele could yank her husband away to evade the angered Decepticon, she witnessed the three faced Cybertronian get hit in the side of his helm with what looked like a wrecking ball of sorts. Blitzwing flew off his feet from the impact and remained airborne for about fifty feet before he crashed roughly onto the ground. He remained face down on the earth, moving slowly and muttering obscenities and vows of destruction beneath his breath.

The Adams family beheld three more extraterrestrial robots off to their left, standing on the street. These ones looked significantly smaller than the purple and beige giant the couple was saved from. They also looked very familiar and it didn't take the man and woman to recognize them as the Autobots they had seen on the television before.

"Nice shot, Bulkhead," Optimus said with relief in his voice.

"Try to hit him like that again then we can kick his helm back and forth just like in soccer!" Bumblebee chuckled. He looked over at the shaken Humans who were staring back at him and his teammates. "Hey, you two get to safety alright? I wouldn't go inside your unless if we chase Buckethead out of here since his big, old aft might crush your house."

"A-alright…" Adele said. She glanced over at Blitzwing who was still lying on the ground but trying to prop himself back up onto his stabilizing servos. "Let me go grab our car keys and we'll get out of here."

"You're not leaving without me!" Paul reminded her.

The duo ran to their house as quickly as they could to retrieve their car keys and get out before they could get caught in any crossfire.

Optimus, Bumblebee and Bulkhead readied themselves into a battle stance as they watched Blitzwing stand back up onto his boot-like feet. He shook his head and rubbed the side of it where Bulkhead had struck him. Hothead was still in control.

"I zhink a beatdown is long overdue vith jou puny bots," he said venomously. "And how did jou zhree catch vind of my location?"

"The question is, what're you doing going through garbage cans?" Bumblebee said in a snarky tone. "Are you and your fellow Decepticons getting so desperate and bored that you're doing that? The Humans tend to notice things when they see your ugly faces going through their trash late in the evening."

"For jour information, bug," Icy sneered and spoke condescendingly, "it is simply none of jour business."

"It's just a little project is all," Random added. "Zhere's nozhing harmful about it. See, I'm even taking free furniture! Don't I get some credit for doing zat at least instead of stealing zhings?"

"He kinda does have a point though I don't wanna admit it," Bulkhead conceded.

"Seriously, Blitzwing, what're you up to?" Optimus pressed. The red and blue Prime was hungry for answers.

Icy took control again and he rolled his regular optic. He crossed his arms and looked entirely disinterested in conversing with them.

"I told jou," he said, sounding annoyed and bored.

"We have some questions for you, Blitzwing and we would appreciate it if you cooperated with us," Optimus proceeded cautiously. He knew it was very likely that he wasn't going to get any answers out of him but with Random already saying something about a "project" he hoped that personality would leak some more information. "We'll let you go if just answer some of those questions."

"Jou act as if jou have ze upper hand, Optimus!" He was laughing in amusement now. "I see a yellow bug zat doesn't know how to shut his mouth, a bumbling iron-brained idiot and zheir young, hopeless, veak commander. Perhaps jou may have had a chance if jou brought zat cheap shot ninjabot and zat fat medic to ze party. But zat is one big maybe…"

Optimus was well aware of what Blitzwing was up to. He was taunting and goading him in the hopes he would make a fatal error that would cost him his spark. It was true that Decepticons were ferocious, terrifying physical brawlers but they also fought with words quite well too. He also noted that Blitzwing, especially Icy, was particularly good with driving the verbal knife in effectively. His intelligence made him deadly and equally as powerful and dangerous as his other two personalities.

The red and blue bot didn't break his gaze from the wily 'Con and continued to stare him down. In a certain way, he counted himself lucky that the police report indicated that it was Blitzwing who was doing this odd, nightly raid. The frantic 911 call from a group of teenagers an hour earlier was proven to be no hoax and when the Detroit Police Department forwarded this encounter to the Autobots, Optimus immediately jumped to the task.

Now that he had the triple changer in his sights, he wanted questions regarding a very certain and suspicious Human female answered. To him, there was no denying that she had a connection to possibly Blitzwing himself.

"What do you know about Cynthia Preston?" Optimus went straight to the point.

Blitzwing's spark nearly froze in his chest when her name was uttered from this Autobot's mouth. His instincts commanded him to demand what Optimus had done or wanted to do about her but he also knew it would be a huge blunder to reveal he had a relationship with her. He stood in silence, not knowing what to think or what to say back to him. He fought to maintain his austere display but his confusion and desire to attack his enemies were beginning to gain the upper hand.

"Who is zat?" he inquired. He figured to play dumb as best as he could. "Jou must be talking about an organic. I'm sorry but I don't bozher to remember ze names or faces of zhose ants."

"I don't know about that," Bumblebee chimed in, smirking playfully. "Have you seen her lately, loverbot?"

If he was capable of blushing, he would've done so. Blitzwing frowned, looking entirely displeased and annoyed. He growled deeply within his throat and stared down the peppy, yellow Autobot who was taunting him. The Decepticon warrior wanted nothing more than to feel Bumblebee's energon splatter onto his servos as he watched the light fade from his blue optics.

"Jou zhink I have feelings for a lowly, short-lived organic?" Icy snickered.

"Zat's a good joke, small stuff!" Random said, wiping an imaginary tear away from one of his optics.

"Less talking and more fighting!" Hothead demanded.

His cannon barrels came down over his shoulders and aimed them at his Autobot foes. The three opponents dispersed just as he was about to let loose two streams of fire from his turrets. The fire had failed to singe or scorch of any of them and dissipated after travelling about twenty feet away from Blitzwing's turrets.

"Aren't you quick to change the subject?" Bumblebee said, not wanting to relent with the taunting. "I think it's a rather touchy subject I got into."

The youngest Autobot received a reply from his foe in the form of a yell of frustration. Bumblebee quickly sidestepped when he saw Blitzwing swing a punch towards him with the intention to pummel and bludgeon the smaller Cybertronian with it. He continued to dodge Blitzwing's strikes, knowing full well that if he allowed him to land a hit on him, he'd be in a world of pain and agony.

While Blitzwing remained focused on Bumblebee, he had almost forgotten about Bulkhead and Optimus' presence in the battle. With his anger possessing him, it clouded his judgment and perception of the world around him. He had failed to see out of the corner of his optic Bulkhead's wrecking ball batter him across his back. The triple changer grunted in pain at the impact and fell to his knees. Another blow from the husky, green Autobot sent Blitzwing's faceplate into the dirt once again.

"What were you saying about us not having the upper hand?" Optimus smiled, delighted with how irony was working in this situation. His guard still remained on high alert as he drew his axe and steadied himself. "I suggest that you talk."

"As much as I'd like to knock your processor clean out of your helm, I know Boss Bot wants you in a semi-decent state," said Bulkhead. He did not withdraw his weapon and remained defensive alongside his leader.

Blitzwing could feel shame creeping in on him. His anger was getting the best of him and not really helping him with this fight. More than anything else, it was making him fight with his brawn and large size than with his wits. Now they were making a fool of him by beating him down. He desired to rip their helms off and crush them in his servos but he knew there was no way that was going to happen if he wasn't going to calm down and rethink his strategy.

There was also no way he was going to let the Autobots lay a hand on the Human he cherished. He was fully aware that they were suspicious of her and they had already even questioned him about what he knew of her. Blitzwing felt anguished to pretend to think so little of her but he knew it was all an act for the sake of her own security. The very concept of entertaining the thought of Cynthia being in their clutches made his spark lurch in his chest and made him want to go on a murderous, jealous rampage. It was already trying enough to know that she was in their presence and that they were monitoring her while he was forced to remain disconnected and distant from her. It further outraged him that he did not know how long he was to be separated from her. There was also the possibility the Autobots might deem it necessary to take custody of her at any moment they thought was appropriate.

"It vould be foolish of jou to not offline me, Autobots," Icy said as he stood up onto his stabilizing servos. "To allow me to go off alive and vell is practically inviting me to try to extract revenge sooner or later."

"We have some evidence that indicates that Megatron is using Humans as spies," Optimus said, choosing to remain on the task of getting any answers from the three-faced Cybertronian. "A former MECH guard that you and your fellow Decepticons failed to kill told us what he knew. We went up to the northern forests of Canada and saw what you had done up there."

Blitzwing tensed up at this reveal. He was determined to kill any MECH employee during that raid for the sake of keeping the identities of his organic charges safe. To hear that someone had survived the destruction he, Lugnut and Starscream had sowed on Silas' base of operations made him feel like a miserable failure. Megatron would not take kindly to this error and undoubtedly he would scold Starscream and Lugnut as well for their collective mishap. Yet his most immediate concern was that they knew the identity of Cynthia and both of her siblings.

"Oh and we also know you have a corrupted Allspark shard," Bulkhead said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Now this was making him feel uncomfortable and vulnerable. Blitzwing decided to dispel and discourage them from thinking they were getting to him by putting on a stoic and emotionless front for them. He could not let his true feelings burst forth and snowball out of control.

"It does not matter zat ze germ survived ze ordeal," he replied coldly. "Jou can zhink all jou vant about zhese supposed organic spies Megatron has in his employ. Ze only organic ve have in our custody is Professor Sumdac who is alive and vell." Icy smiled darkly. "Sari must miss her daddy terribly…"

The Autobots glowered after he uttered those words in such an evil and unmerciful manner. Bumblebee was particularly angered at Blitzwing's lack of empathy since he was Sari's guardian and he knew just how much the little girl missed her father. There were a few times when he had to hold her in his arms and allow her to fall asleep on his chest as she cried herself to sleep because she had missed Sumdac so deeply.

"You would get a kick out of tearing families apart and delighting in their pain!" Bumblebee yelled at him. "I'm going to make sure that they're brought back together but right now, I can't do anything about it. But what I can do right now is wipe that stupid smile off your ugly faceplate!"

Blitzwing had misjudged how quick Bumblebee had lunged towards him. He further underestimated the power of a punch that had sent his faces rattling around in his helm like a roulette wheel. While the triple changer remained stunned and incapacitated from the flurry of punches the tiny bot was thrusting upon him, he fought to defend himself the furious Autobot.

"Bumblebee, that's enough!" Optimus ordered.

He ignored his superior's orders and continued with his assault. A barrage of punches with one servo and then a painful zap from a stinger on his other limb had battered Blitzwing as he still struggled to stop his faces from rotating out of control.

"He might actually beat him!" Bulkhead gasped. His jaw dropped at the possible outcome. "Get'm, Bumblebee! Make him get a taste of his own medicine!"

Optimus on the other hand, was not so confident. Sooner or later, he knew Blitzwing would recover and retaliate. Though Bumblebee had speed and his small frame on his side that he used to his advantage, he lack the proper physical power to bring Blitzwing to his knees. When the Decepticon would eventually regain control of himself and launch his counterattack, Bumblebee would have nowhere to run or back off especially with him being so close to him. The scenario was not playing out prettily in his processor and he was becoming anxious.

"I said to stop!" Optimus commanded, trying to sound as imperious and authoritative as possible. "Stop it, Bumblebee!"

The spirited Autobot felt himself beginning to tire out as he whaled on his unpredictable enemy. He was suddenly reminded that Blitzwing was indeed much larger and far more capable of delivering a great amount of carnage and damage to anyone who got within an arm's reach of him. With him becoming exhausted from the exertion and with Blitzwing not falling to the ground just yet in submission, Bumblebee began to see that perhaps it was a good idea to back off.

"He is jour leader for a reason, youngling!" Random laughed maniacally as he finally regained his strength and balance back. "Jou should have listened to him!"

He lunged for Bumblebee and lassoed his powerful arms around the Autobot's frame. Like a python with living prey in its coils, Blitzwing tightened his hold on Bumblebee, squeezing him. He grinned maliciously as he could feel his victim's frame struggle to support the pressure he was putting on him.

Bumblebee fought in a frenzied manner to escape the deadly bear hug but he could scarcely move in this constricting posture. He kicked his legs and tried to worm his way out but it was no use. With each escape attempt, he was held even tighter making him cry out in pain as he felt himself being slowly crushed to death. The Autobot could feel his helm getting foggy which frightened him and made him even more desperate in trying to escape.

"Put him down!" Optimus said in a threatening tone. It sounded low but he was obviously angered at the torture of his comrade.

"I call zis move 'Ze Hug of Death'!" Random announced in a proud voice. "I give credit to vatching Human wrestlers on TV for using zis move on each ozher! If jou come any closer, I'm going to squeeze him so hard he pops like a balloon! Maybe he vill fly off and sound like one too vhen jou let all ze air out of it! Ahahaha!"

"Now I really have ze upper hand vith jour friend in such a precarious situation," Icy stated coolly and confidently. "Vhat are jou going to do, Prime?"

Bumblebee was now hanging limply in Blitzwing's arms but his color had not faded to a few shades of gray; it was an indication that he was still online at the moment. He gagged, spitting out some energon in the process. The pink life-blood splattered onto the triple changer's armor but Blitzwing seemed to relish the fact that he was crushing him to the point of offlining.

"Bulkhead, surrender," Optimus ordered.

The large Autobot was shocked by his leader's command for a ceasefire. For a moment, he thought that Optimus was not thinking properly and seriously considered going against his orders and prying his friend from Blitzwing's grip. He stared at the Prime but Optimus had kept his back to him, not looking him in the optic and expecting him to carry out the command.

"Boss, why..?" he started.

"Do it, Bulkhead!" Optimus snapped.

Without another word, Bulkhead did as he was told. Deep inside, he hoped that his leader had a plan in mind to save Bumblebee. This surrender would not prompt Blitzwing to return the favor by releasing his hostage.

Optimus put his own weapon away but didn't take his optics off Blitzwing. The Decepticon stared him down in return but did not lessen or tighten his grip on Bumblebee.

"Want to hear a joke, Blitzwing?" Optimus asked with a smirk suddenly gracing his features.

Just as he predicted and hoped would happen, he saw Icy's faceplate begin to rotate, no doubt with Random coming out to reply to his question. As soon as Blitzwing's faces began to swap out, Optimus made his move. He leapt up into the air and swung one of his legs out. As soon as Random emerged so he could communicate, the Autobot commander's stabilizing servo struck him directly in the side of his helm. Optimus knew that he scored a direct hit when he could see Blitzwing's optics flicker between gray and red.

The impact had forced Blitzwing to release Bumblebee as he was sent gliding through the air for a short distance and crashing into one of the pine trees, shattering its trunk and making it collapse on top of him. The Decepticon remained immobile and almost completely covered beneath the tree with the only signs of life coming from him were soft whimpers. Then the whimpers quieted down completely but the tree remained unmoving.

Both Bulkhead and Optimus knelt down at Bumblebee's side to check up on his status. A few trickles of energon streamed from the corner of his mouth but he appeared to be alive and well. His optics were half opened as he sleepily gazed back at his brothers in arms.

"Nice hit, Boss Bot," Bumblebee scoffed weakly. "I'm pretty sure you broke his processor even more if that's possible."

"You took it like a bot, Bumblebee," Bulkhead complimented his friend. "You're tough."

"We have to get you back to Ratchet right now," Optimus said as he gingerly scooped him up into his arms. "Can you move anything?"

Bumblebee moved his arms and legs and he was relieved to see that he could indeed make them move. He was aching all over terribly and might've had some internal damage as a result of the crushing but he was alright. A quick check up from Ratchet and a little repair from Sari's key would make him feel as good as new and itching for revenge against the manic 'Con.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Bumblebee said as he managed a small smile. "Could be better, could be worse."

"We better get out of here before he decides to attack us again," Bulkhead suggested. "We're more vulnerable now with Bumblebee being weakened."

"We can't, not when there are defenseless organics around here," said Optimus. "We're in a small neighborhood here but he's still a massive threat to their livelihood. He was ready to kill those two Humans earlier. I will make sure that he leaves this place."

Optimus faced Bulkhead and held the battered, yellow Autobot out to him. Bulkhead looked at his leader in disbelief and only stared back at him.

"We need backup, Boss," Bulkhead said, shaking his helm. "I'm not leaving you alone to fight Blitzwing!"

"Take Bumblebee back to Ratchet," he finalized. "If we continue to fight Blitzwing while Bumblebee is here, Blitzwing will try to finish him off in order to gain the upper hand. He is an open target for as long as he is here and he needs to use as little energy as possible. He needs rest and no stress. I will be fine."

Although Optimus would not consider himself to be particularly vengeful or spiteful, he felt nothing but contempt for Blitzwing after what he had subjected Bumblebee to. What he really wanted to do was to attempt to get more answers out of him and maybe make him pay a little for what he had done. He had far preferred to capture and imprison the enemy and make them face proper justice rather than kill them but he knew that if Blitzwing would not be able to escape, he would fight to the point of offlining. Not only that, Optimus had a feeling he would try to take his opponent with him if he was bested and slain. In all honesty, he hoped Blitzwing would turn and flee at some point.

He drew his axe once more and refocused his attention on the lifeless heap of the tree that served as an odd, makeshift blanket for the enemy. It was not disturbed and it was far too quiet and immobile.

"Bulkhead, go," Optimus asserted.

"I'm calling Prowl to help you then," Bulkhead countered. "You can't do this alone, Boss Bot. This is a team effort."

The hefty Cybertronian transformed carefully around Bumblebee in a way to not damage him even more. He managed to safely stow his compatriot away in an empty space in the back of his vehicle mode for secure keeping until they made it back to Detroit. Then he drove off, leaving his leader behind with the enemy.

Optimus crept closer to where the tree was, expecting to see Blitzwing bursting from beneath the ruins and roaring in fury. He didn't want to get too close to where he was lying so that the triple changer could get a good grip on him and rip him limb from limb. Now there was some doubt forming in his spark whether he could really take his foe on but he refused to back down and allow any nearby Humans to become easy prey for the Decepticon. He steeled himself and resolved to be ready for anything that would come his way.

A laugh unexpectedly filled the air. It started off softly but then it began to grow in volume as the seconds ticked by. The tree began to stir and slide off to the side as Blitzwing pushed himself up off the ground.

"Jou clever, manipulative Autobot," he said. Random was nowhere to be seen and had been replaced by Icy. "I suspected zat ze ninjabot vould make a move like zat but not jou."

"You can say that we all took a page from each other's book while we fought alongside one another," Optimus smiled. "It pays off to learn from one another."

"I can assure jou zat I vill not allow it to happen again. Jou should have heeded ze fat one's proposal to flee as vell. Zat vill prove to be jour undoing and ultimately, jour killer. Megatron vill be most pleased to know zat I offlined jou. He vill be even happier to see me bring jour helm back to him."

Optimus' smiled didn't falter and it still remained prominent on his face.

"A lot of talk, but no action," he said. "Looks like the Decepticons aren't living up to their fierce reputations anymore. Instead of picking on members of their own species, they victimize the smaller organics of this world. There's no honor or glory in that. It's nothing but full blown cowardice if you ask me."

"I'll have jou know it is far more gratifying and satisfying to kill an Autobot zhan some germ zat vill be dead in ze blink of an optic!" Blitzwing dourly stated. "But do not misunderstand me, I do delight in extinguishing zheir lives. Ze less organics, ze better!"

He gave Optimus no warning when he shot out a stray beam of ice out at him. The Prime moved out of the way before he could end up being frozen to the ground and be made an easy target for his enemy. He continued to roll, sidestep and jump to the side in order to avoid being struck by the icy stream.

The Autobot stared his opponent down, remembering the slaughter that had taken place at MECH's facility. Though MECH had plans on targeting and eliminating any and all Cybertronian presences on Earth, he still felt pity for the way all those personnel had perished. Undoubtedly, Blitzwing had been responsible for quite a few of those casualties as well.

"I saw what you've done in the Northwest Territories," he said. "You murdered all those Humans so you could get Starscream, a spy and an Allspark fragment back… Don't you feel any remorse or shame for what you've done? You cannot be that cruel and vile, can you?"

"Vhy do jou feel as if jou need to protect zem?" Blitzwing countered. "Zhey are inferior creatures; vhat don't jou understand about zat? Zis is a conflict between jou Autobots and us Decepticons. Ze Humans are simply collateral damage and zhey get in ze vay."

"We protect them because of the likes of you and your master!"

Optimus swung his axe at the triple changer, nearly nicking Blitzwing on his chin. Luckily for the Decepticon, he managed to back off in enough time and weaved his body to evade the powerful weapon that the red and blue bot wielded. Then Blitzwing managed to kick Optimus in his side when he had swung his axe and tried to bring it back up to continue his assault. He flew off his stabilizing servos but recovered and landed, creating tread marks on the grassy ground. Pain stung at his side from Blitzwing's kick but he would not let it bother or slow him down in the slightest.

The Autobot commander tightened his grip on his axe when he saw Random take Icy's place as the currently dominant persona. He held his position.

"Vhat do jou zhink of heights, Autobot?!" he cackled insanely.

Hastily transforming into his jet mode, Blitzwing flew towards his opponent while he still giggled madly. Optimus had no time to arch his back and bring his axe down on him and was forced to take the brunt of the tackle's impact as the purple and beige bot crashed into him. He dug the tips of his digits into Blitzwing's hide to secure himself as he felt him climb upwards into the sky. He could also feel him speed up and he struggled to maintain a powerful grip as the sheer force of the acceleration tugged at his frame. Looking over his shoulder, he could already see that he and the crazed bot were a few hundred feet above the ground.

Optimus held on for dear life, feeling that Blitzwing was going to continue to ascend until he had judged he was at a height that would be considered deadly enough to seriously injure or kill the smaller robot. As best as he could, he attempted to climb over his aerial vehicle form so that he could end up on his back and out of his reach but that plan was foiled when Blitzwing started to make jerky and erratic movements while flying. Gasping loudly, he tightened his grip even more so now that it was becoming obvious that his life may be depending on it.

Blitzwing began to perform barrel rolls and other stunts in an effort to startle the Autobot and shake him off to send him plummeting to the earth. His intentions were to frighten the Prime but not offline him just yet. He wanted to savor the helplessness and terror he'd feel before he would ultimately finish him off. The triple changer would then bring back the helm of his victim to Megatron like a gruesome trophy and he would undoubtedly be handsomely rewarded for his kill. The pride of the kill and Megatron's favor was all too tempting for him to pass up. Not only that, it'd be one less Autobot to worry about which meant that it would be one less issue for his cherished Human to fret about.

"Do a barrel roll!" Random hooted to himself loudly and continued to execute the aerial maneuver.

He spun around erratically but Optimus still held on with every single strand of power and determination in his chassis. The Prime set his hand atop one of Blitzwing's wing struts and applied pressure to it to anchor himself.

Blitzwing then howled in pain at the action and his efforts to throw off his passenger became even more fevered. Optimus let out a startled cry of his own, not understanding why exactly the jet-tank had reacted as if he was in agony when all he did was grip one of his wings.

Then it suddenly struck him that he indeed did apply pressure to one of those purple wing struts; those parts were indeed very sensitive components on any flying Cybertronian's body. Blitzwing was equally vulnerable to any forceful touches like any other seeker.

Seeing a chance to end it and tip the battle in his favor, Optimus set another servo atop the wing strut, tipping Blitzwing and making him fly off balance. Random still cried and whined at the unwanted and painful feeling and kept trying to buck his enemy off.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" he yelled out in a mantra. "Don't touch my vings!"

Deciding to take a chance, Optimus lessened his grip with one of his servos. In that servo, he still held his axe. His remaining servo still remained firmly latched onto Blitzwing's wing strut. With his axe he slashed the wing, prompting a stream of energon to flow forth.

Suddenly, Blitzwing began to plunge to the ground as he was seized with pain. While the triple changer was busy coping with his damaged wing, Optimus managed to climb over top of him at last and onto his back. He lied down on top of him and still maintained a strong hold on the wings to brace himself for the inevitable impact.

"Vhat kind of bot attacks a flier's vings like zat?!" the jack-o-lantern fiercely questioned.

"One who believes you are in sound need of punishment," Optimus retorted shortly.

Optimus' optics widened when he saw that Blitzwing was diving towards a house not too far below. With all his might, he angled his body and attempted to steer the Decepticon off course by using his wing struts as leverage. This tactic worked to his luck and he veered away from the residence and the Humans that may have been inside it. He let out an exhale of relief that he had avoided Human blood having been spilled.

But when he had averted one potential crisis, he saw that he was in another. Dead ahead were woods and it looked like Blitzwing was not going to be slowing down or attempting to break his fall. Before he could become possibly damaged by smashing against trees larger than himself, Optimus bailed. He transformed into his vehicle mode about twenty feet above the ground and allowed himself to slide for a few hundred feet to lessen his momentum in a potential collision.

While he had saved himself from crashing into any objects or the hard ground, Blitzwing was not so lucky. Optimus could hear trees shattering, metal crunching, rocks bursting and muffled cries of pain emitting from the woods off to his left. The racket kept sounding for a good twenty seconds before it died down altogether and nothing else was heard. It was almost too calm and silent for him to be comfortable.

He turned his headlights on and jogged off into the woodlands to survey the destruction and see if Blitzwing had survived the ordeal. Once he got about a hundred feet into the woods, he slowed his pace and walked.

Already, he could see that Blitzwing left a huge swath of destruction in his wake. Trees had been broken in half and others were missing their canopies entirely. Further along the ruined path, he could see a deep skid mark in the forest floor, realizing that Blitzwing had crashed along here and had slid across the ground roughly. There were small pools of energon along the path as well, leading him towards the apparently injured Decepticon.

Optimus continued to walk along cautiously and slowly to be on the lookout for Blitzwing who might've recovered and was waiting for the right moment to launch a surprise attack on his Autobot foe. The animal life had evidently been spooked and disturbed by the crash landing as Optimus had to stop a few times to let some fleeing deer pass by him or twist his body to the side to avoid being hit in the face by an owl whose favorite perch had been destroyed in the carnage.

It seemed as if this destroyed track of nature was nearly endless. There were still signs of the crash the further he went in but no physical signs of Blitzwing himself save for stray droplets of energon he saw. A part of him wanted to call out and see if there would be a reply of some sort. He decided against it though and preferred to keep his optics peeled for any ominous red glows coming from his surroundings.

About half a mile into the dark, sleeping woods, he finally saw him. Blitzwing was in his robot mode, lying face down in a pond, looking to be completely unresponsive and most likely unconscious. Energon was leaking from a rather large gash from the wing Optimus had injured; during the impact, it was possible that it made the wound worse. Some circuitry was visible in the injury on his wing and Optimus could identify fizzling wires and some other sensitive, inorganic components. The Decepticon was not curled up in a ball but he was sprawled out in the pond. All over his body, he was covered in dents, bleeding cuts and some of his paint job had been scuffed and worn away, revealing bare, colorless metal beneath. He did not look too bad but Optimus believed that internally, he might've had far more damage.

The energon was seeping into the water, making the pond almost seem to glow with a weird, ethereal aura from the pink liquid. Some fish were floating at the surface dead, a sign that the energon had poisoned them. If any other creatures drank from this pond, undoubtedly they would be killed as well from the tainted water. Optimus figured he would have to inform some organic authorities about the poisoned pond to avoid anyone from drinking it and to properly drain it to prevent anyone or anything from dying from it.

Without taking his optics off of Blitzwing, Optimus commed Ratchet.

"Ratchet, did Bulkhead tell you he was on his way with Bumblebee?" he asked.

"Yes, he did and you should've went off with them instead of fighting that loony Decepticon by yourself!" the crotchety, old medic scolded him. "You must still be online if you're talking to me…have you scared him off?"

"No, I'm looking at him right now. He's in a stasis lock I think. His color didn't fade but he hasn't reacted to anything. He crashed into some woods and I think the impact rendered him knocked out. I was thinking maybe we could restrain him properly before he wakes up and bring him back to base for questioning."

"Prowl is on his way to help out so let's hope he stays in that lock until we can get him into our hideout. Did you try questioning him earlier about the spies?"

"Yes but he denied everything. It's obvious that he's lying. So much evidence is pointing to the fact that something is going on. Truthfully, I think I got very lucky with this whole fight…"

"And this is where your luck gets cut short, Autobot!" a third and very unfamiliar voice sounded out directly behind Optimus.

The Prime's optics nearly became circular when he realized that he was not alone and that his company sounded quite hostile. Before he could even spin around to even properly defend himself or get a glimpse of his attacker, he felt searing pain as he was electrocuted. His vision then went black as Optimus went into a stasis lock from the magnitude of the electrocution.

Knock Out smiled balefully at the fallen young bot, silently gloating over his easy victory. As much as he wanted to bask in his accomplishment, he set aside his energon prod and hustled over to Blitzwing's unconscious form.

"Hey, Blitzwing!" he called.

The red medic grimaced when he felt cold, wet mud squish beneath his freshly polished and buffed stabilizing servos. He growled in irritation at the incident and backed off and attempted to wipe them off on the ground. To his disdain, leaves became encrusted onto his stabilizing servos from the sticky mud and he threw his arms up in frustration.

One of Blitzwing's stabilizing servos was only a few feet away from him, lying on the bank of the pond. Knock Out kicked the giant metal foot in an attempt to wake him up. If he could avoid having to go into that fetid, disgusting pond, he was going to try everything to save himself from being dirtied.

"Wake up!" he commanded as he still kicked him. "Come on, the fall wasn't that bad!"

After a few seconds of kicking his stabilizing servo, bubbles and ripples began to form in the pond. Knock Out ceased the movement and took a few steps to avoid being sprayed by any water and mud from Blitzwing's stirrings. He heard a pained groan come from his mouth but regarding which of the personalities made such a noise could only be guessed. Slowly and shakily, Blitzwing rose up from the pond and turned around to face his fellow Decepticon.

"You look hideous!" Knock Out said bluntly.

"How bad is it?!" Random whimpered as he clutched his face with both servos. "Did ze fall disfigure me and make me look ugly?! I'm not handsome and sexy anymore?!"

"You're covered in mud and other biological slop, slag-for-brains!"

Bltizwing looked down at his body to survey the damage that had been done. His whole front was covered in mud and he was soaked. The Decepticon emblem on his chest was barely noticeable beneath the layer of filth and grime. To see that he was only dirty was a relief to him. That dilemma could be cured with a quick, relaxing plunge into Lake Erie.

"Oh, jou really had me startled zhere for a moment!" Random laughed. "I zhought my physical charm and beauty had been destroyed!"

"Vhere is zat puny Autobot?!" Hothead thundered. "He vill pay for vhat he has done to me! I svear I vill rip his spark out for zis!"

"Taken care of," Knock Out said in a droll tone. "What we have to do is get out of here before this Autobot's friends show up."

"Knock Out, vhat are jou doing here exactly?" Icy asked. "How did jou come across me and ze Prime?"

"Well, Megatron asked me to follow you around since you've been out of the mine a lot. I didn't know you were a dumpster diver, Blitzwing."

Blitzwing glared at Knock Out disdainfully and attempted to wipe off some of the mud that was caked onto his body. He growled in irritation at the mud and how it was smeared all over his chassis. He could feel it within his gears and even within some of his open wounds. Then he hissed in pain when his wing strut stung him and he was reminded he had that wound too, no thanks to Optimus.

"So I suppose jou know vhat I've been doing zhen if Megatron had jou follow me around," he said as he inspected his wing.

"It's kinda creepy but oddly flattering in a way too," Knock Out smirked. "You can bet I was a little surprised. I'm sure Cyndi is one lucky femme to have such a stud-bot like you." He snorted when he repressed a spray of laughter.

"Zat's none of jour business!" Hothead rumbled as he took a threatening step closer to the doc bot.

"Hey, I had an especially good idea of your relationship with her when I came to your little love nest to see you when you were sick. Megatron already told me about your link to her but when I saw you with her, shrunken down, I immediately knew what was going on. I knew you were crazy, Blitzwing, but interfacing with a Human…that's a whole new brand of insanity."

"If jou tell anyone about it, I svear jou vill disappear and no one vill ever find jou again! I'll make sure of it!"

Knock Out could only smile. He was so used to Hothead threatening nearly everyone with death and destruction that he couldn't take any of it seriously. The fact that he got Blitzwing to admit that bit of information was entertaining and juicy enough for him.

"Yeah, okay, whatever," the smaller Decepticon said dismissively.

"Hey, Knock Out," Random said.

"What?"

Blitzwing smiled largely at his comrade. He then scooped up a sizable wad of mud off his shoulders and threw it at Knock Out. It struck him with a loud, wet smack and nearly swept him off his stabilizing servos. The triple changer laughed at the mess he created and transformed into his jet mode.

"Let's have a race to Erie!" he challenged him.

Knock Out could only stare in shock and disbelief at his marred and dirty paintjob. The corner of his mouth twitched in rising fury and he clenched his servos into fists. His fury swelled as he watched the jet fly off towards the direction of Lake Erie.

"I'll kill you for this, Blitzwing!" he hollered.

Grunting in frustration, Knock Out transformed into his vehicle mode and raced after Blitzwing, leaving behind the still unconscious Prime.


	62. The Plea

**Hello guys thank you for the follows/faves/reviews as always! I apologize for the lack of an update and I haven't been spending too much time on this site. Over the past few months, the holidays have been keeping me busy along with work, little health set backs, writer's blocks and other things have been popping up and making me lag behind with writing all my stories. I hope to update more frequently but it's been admittedly rough finding time to write but I'll try to do what I can for you guys. This story isn't dead!**

**So for this chapter, things get a little interesting for Cyndi (and hopefully for you guys!). I'm not gonna reveal too much other than the fact a few characters catch onto her predicament. Also, this chapter is pretty damn long and there's a good chance the next chapter is going to be as equally lengthy, if not longer. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up about it... Enjoy the new chapter and leave a review if you wish!**

Chapter 62 The Plea

(November 22nd apartment – 10:30am)

When she watched the news, catching wind of the skirmish that Blitzwing got into with three Autobots, she decided she needed to talk a walk. Her thoughts were still consumed and undecided as to what she wanted to do about the fetus but now that she saw the news story, it was just another thing for her to stress over. Anymore, she was surprised she didn't keel over from a heart attack thanks to all the anxiety and emotional turmoil she was dealing with.

Without saying anything to her brother and sister, she put on a pair of sweatpants, a loose t-shirt, a hoodie and a pair of her boots and walked outside into the cold November morning. Flurries danced around in the light breeze and sent a chill up her spine but Cynthia had no wish to turn back into the warmth of her home. At this point, she didn't even care if she would cross paths with an Autobot; all she knew was that she needed to take a harmless walk. She stuffed her hands into her pockets and began to walk along.

Thanksgiving was coming up within a matter of days and her parents were going to be coming over to celebrate it with their children. It was going to require a god-like effort to try to put on a fake, happy act for her mother and father and pretend as if everything was right as rain. Undoubtedly they would notice that she packed on about ten pounds since the last time they saw their eldest child. Her father would be worried and suspicious and they would also question the whereabouts of her German immigrant boyfriend. There was no possible way she was going to tell everyone around the dinner table that she was pregnant lest she wanted it to be the worst Thanksgiving she ever had.

Then there was the issue of her brother and sister. For a few weeks, they had already sensed that something was off about their eldest sibling but they were still in the dark about it. There were a few times when they questioned her if there was more to her little anemia problem that she wasn't telling them, as evidenced by her weight gain, depression and her increasingly aloof and distant mannerisms. She knew that they would tell their parents about these startling observations and she also knew all four of them would end up confronting her and demanding the truth. Amanda was certainly becoming very curious as she knew that her sister's menstrual cycle had been absent for a few months as evidenced by the fact she only bought and saw feminine products for herself under the sink anymore.

But for now, she didn't want to focus on her concerned relatives. All she wanted to reflect on was nothing, if that was even possible.

Her eyes perused over the parking lot, on the lookout for any vehicles that may be Autobots in disguise. She then dismissed her fear since according to what she heard on the news with one of the Autobots nearly being killed in the fight against Blitzwing that happened a mere eight hours ago. Cynthia reasoned to herself that the Autobots were most likely recovering and taking a small break from their fight with him and weren't very interested in studying their suspect. When she found out he fought with them, she felt afraid for him but when it was noted he was nowhere to be seen and the Autobots had no idea where he went to, so she assumed that he was alright. She was relieved he made it out alive and in one piece.

Blitzwing may have gotten out of the scuffle with his enemies with not much damage and that was relieving news but it did nothing to soothe the anxiety she was struggling to contain. It had been nearly three weeks since she discovered she was pregnant but she was still at a loss as to what to do with her unborn son or daughter. While one part of her wanted to remain objective and coldhearted and purge herself of the child and rationalizing that she was not ready to become a mother, another half of her wanted to keep it. Although she was terrified of what might happen in the future should she choose to raise the infant, she found herself becoming more attached as time passed by. While it worried her and unsettled her that she was able to conceive and (so far) accommodate a child with an alien father, she was relieved that her lover was the one who sired it. She reasoned with herself it could've been far worse; she could've been raped and then ended up pregnant with some other man's child.

She attempted to predict what may happen if she either decided to abort or keep it. If she aborted it, it would be done and over with. No one except herself would know what had really happened. But she personally believed she would feel guilty and horrid over that choice for the rest of her life if she did end up going down that path. It would feel relieving and freeing but then she felt it would occur to her what she had done exactly and take its toll on her mentally. The only bright side she saw was that she didn't have to worry about her child being enslaved by Megatron or facing the possible hatred their own father would direct towards them.

As for the subject of the positives, she wasn't so sure. Deciding to keep it would not be something to laugh off or turn her nose up at and dismiss. Many problems could potentially surface and make her life difficult and seemingly unbearable. Thinking about the future unnerved her and intimidated her but she couldn't find the willpower or conscious to seek to eliminate such challenges before they could ever surface. The concept of adoption was appealing to her lately. But she also wondered how she could possibly conceal her pregnancy up to full term when she already felt and started to look more bloated as she was getting closer to the halfway mark. She also knew there was no way she could get away with giving birth in secrecy and then dropping her child off at the hospital or police department's doorstep unless if her family and acquaintances were extremely dense and daft to her situation.

As Cyndi walked along the sidewalk, she found herself running one of her hands over her bump. With every day that went by, she could've sworn she felt it grow bigger. She didn't know anyone else who was pregnant so she had no way of comparing her situation with another's and it worried her. She had books and the internet to guide her through her development and she had meticulously noted and studied what had happened by each week that she entered. In a week she'd have another sonogram and that fact in itself ushered in another plethora of questions and worries.

The woman was so consumed by her thoughts and personal inquiries that she failed to notice that she was being watched from the cover of the woods. If she had not been so worried and anxious, she possibly would've felt the sensation she was being observed but it didn't even cross her mind at this point. She was far too preoccupied with her own problems to notice anyone or anything else.

"Hey, Cyndi."

That voice instantly made her stop in her tracks and freeze like a deer caught in the path of a speeding eighteen wheeler. Slowly, she peered at her surroundings, trying to figure out where the voice came from. The parking lot was empty save for a few cars but there wasn't a soul to be seen.

Then it occurred to her that whoever was speaking to her came from the woods. Her head turned to that direction and she scanned the slumbering wooded lot for any sign of life. It didn't take her long to find a figure kneeling on the earth and hiding behind a tightly growing cluster of trees. She squinted at the object, seeing that the figure was rather large even when kneeling and not standing up at full height. As she looked harder, she caught sight of two gleams of red which she discovered to be eyes, looking directly back at her.

Her heart nearly fell into her stomach at that point and she felt like she was going to vomit. Though she had not seen him for a few months, she was not necessarily thrilled to be reunited with him. She dared not to run away or ignore him since he would instantly know something was wrong. Not only that, he could intercept her before she'd even get too far.

Against what she desired to do, Cynthia left the concrete path she was walking on and began to walk into the slumbering, bare woods. She didn't see the Cybertronian budge from his hiding spot, deeming that he didn't want to move much so he wouldn't be seen by any other organics. With each step that she took, she felt as if she was some nineteenth century gun slinging, cattle rustler who was being guided to his date with the gallows. She fought to at least calm herself but she couldn't. Her heart was hammering within her and all her organs felt like they were clenching up. He had to have known that something was troubling her…

What had felt like hours was actually a minute or two. She stopped before the hunched form of the bounty hunter. When she finally made it to his side, he sat down on the cool, leaf covered earth. Cynthia had no idea what to say to him and she struggled to say something.

"B-been awhile, Lockdown," she said, flashing a smile that she feared was far too fake.

Lockdown could tell that something was eating away at her. He could notice it even when she was walking down the sidewalk. Something was holding her thoughts captive and made her appear very timid and fearful on the outside. Earlier, he just merely wanted to discuss with her what had been going on lately but now he saw he'd have to abandon the small talk entirely and see what was wrong with her.

"What's wrong with you?" he questioned as cut straight to the point. "You look like you're about to keel over or purge your fuel tanks."

He couldn't know the truth. He'd run straight back to Blitzwing and tell him. It then wouldn't take long for Blitzwing to fly over to the apartment in a fury and tear the complex asunder and then crush her in his servo. She wouldn't and couldn't let Lockdown know the truth.

"Just a little sick is all," she said a little too quickly. "All it is really is a fall cold."

"I don't think fall colds make you look like you're about to shit your pants as you Humans would say," he retorted. "Something's up with you, Cyndi."

"Well… I am a little worried. I heard about the fight Blitzwing got into with some Autobots. I'm just worried about him."

"He's fine. I was at the mine when Blitzwing returned with Knock Out. He was a little banged up from the fight but he was walking and talking just fine. He can take a great deal of punishment, you ought to know that."

She tried her hardest to calm down so her heart rate could drop steadily but she could feel no relief. Her instincts screamed at her to run but she didn't dare to do that. The fact that he was making eye contact with her made her feel horribly exposed and insecure. Lockdown would not break the gaze since she had a very strong feeling that he knew she was lying to him and hiding something from him.

"You really don't seem sick all that much either," he noted.

"I'm…fine," Cynthia said, trying to sound stern but failing miserably.

"No, you're not. I don't appreciate being lied to."

He wasn't particularly angry but he was becoming impatient with these lies that she was telling him. Lockdown had developed a respect towards Cynthia over time as he admired the courage and tenacity she displayed for a Human amongst metal titans. Due to that respect, he discovered that he liked her but he also felt that he couldn't rightly call her his friend either. Though he was told by Megatron to temporarily cease his guardian duties over the family of young organics, Lockdown didn't feel that the Decepticon overlord was his master either and had disobeyed him on that part. There were a few times when he returned to see what had been going on but thankfully he hadn't spotted. But when he decided to return to his old spot in the wooded lot to check up on things and upon seeing Cyndi so distraught and distressed was an interesting update to say the least.

It then occurred to him that her figure seemed fuller and plump. He recalled that she never seemed to be particularly skinny or chubby but the bounty hunter could tell that she gained weight. Perhaps in her boredom she had let herself go and started eating a little excessively…

"When was the last time you saw Blitzwing?" he asked which caught her off guard.

"It was about a month ago," Cyndi answered. She saw no harm in telling him about the pleasant and unexpected reunion they had. "I decided to go to the barn where he and I would use sometimes and he happened to be there too. We weren't planning on meeting because Megatron told us to not see or even contact each other because of the Autobots."

She noticed that he looked a little harder at her but he had no idea that he was doing a scan on her. Cynthia merely stood in place and folded her hands together. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea to bid him a goodbye and walk away as if nothing had happened.

Lockdown could clearly see her heart thumping beneath her sternum. He already knew that her vitals had to have been heightened from all the fear and tension she was suffering from but this just provided further proof. However, there was something else that stood out before him. As he scanned her further, he could tell that her hormone levels seemed elevated which could also explain why she seemed so unlike herself.

But the thing that had captured his attention the most was a heat signature he found nestled within her pelvis. He magnified the scope of his scan, seeing that the thermal source within her body was a living organism. It had a small skeleton and it appeared to have a heart and some other miscellaneous, developing organs as well. Although it was still undeveloped and had some months to go to grow, he knew without a doubt that a miniature Human was developing inside her.

He sharpened his scope once again to further investigate the fetal organic that he didn't expect to find. When he did that, he wondered if what he had detected was real and his scanners weren't malfunctioning. As impossible and freakish as it was, he detected cyberium within the growing organism's body. The element that made up his own body and all other Cybertronian was within the fetus' tiny, spongy skeletal system, reinforcing it and leading him to a bizarre and disturbing conclusion. At that point, all he could do was stare dumbfounded at what he had discovered.

The shock that he was experiencing was welling up and was becoming manifested outwardly. Cynthia could see his jaw lowering further with each second that was ticking by. At first she was puzzled by his display and wondered why he was acting so astonished but then it occurred to her that he may have been scanning her. By instinctually placing her hands over her bump, she had betrayed herself and revealed everything to him.

"What did you do?" his voice was low and sounded grave and demanding.

Cyndi stumbled backwards, feeling that fear was tightening its grip on her. She fell to her rump but paid no mind to the dull pain in her tailbone.

"It happened out of nowhere!" the terrified woman explained. "Please, don't tell anyone about this!"

"How is that possible?" Lockdown pressed. He was determined to get some answers so he could better understand this enigma. "You're pregnant with a kid that has elements in its body that should not be in there. You have quite a lot of explaining to do, Cyndi…"

While she still sat on her rump, she attempted to scoot away from him to begin her escape. But before she could get too far, the muscle car plucked her up from the earth. He lifted her up off the ground and she didn't fight back, rather preferring to stay put and not take a plunge and risk a miscarriage. Lockdown seated her in the palm of his servo and kept his digits wrapped around her legs to secure her.

"What's your little secret?" he asked.

She realized that he wasn't going to let her go. She considered screaming at the top of her lungs for help but she feared Lockdown would kill her or take her back to the mine where she would be forced to face the others. Going to that mine was something she couldn't and wouldn't face currently. Simply put, she was not mentally capable of making such a venture.

"I don't know…" she whispered through her sniffling. "It wasn't supposed to be possible. He told me it couldn't happen! We're different and we didn't work the same way!"

Lockdown had his suspicions that the couple had indulged in one another but he knew it had been proven when Blitzwing was discovered sick and shrunken down inside the old, abandoned barn. The thought of them engaging in their acts repulsed him but he ignored it for the most part, choosing not to care since he felt it was none of his business and concern. He knew that Blitzwing wasn't dumb enough to try spark bonding with her since she had no spark of her own but he knew that he would happily take advantage of the other form that could certainly be utilized. But it had unsettled the bounty hunter that she somehow ended pregnant when she shouldn't have.

"I think it's safe for me to assume who did this to you…" he said.

"Yes," Cynthia nodded her head. "And…the elements you said you found in them…are they only found in your kind?"

"Yeah, you're right. Did you tell anyone about this?"

"Of course not! I found out when I went to the doctor's… A few days later I went to get a sonogram and they said everything was okay. They said they didn't find anything abnormal. Besides those people, no one else knows. I've been trying to figure out if I want to keep it or get rid of it. I can't come up with an answer!"

He didn't know what to make of it. Lockdown found himself becoming more and more morbidly fascinated by this incident with each second that went by. From what he could observe and deduce so far from his scan, despite the fact there was cyberium present in the child's being, he believed it seemed like an ordinary Human was growing in her. The bounty hunter was clueless about the development and gestation of organics but he had heard his fair share of rumors and references. He also knew that it certainly wasn't normal or expected to see an organic life form nurturing offspring that had cyberium in its being.

"I'm in no position to comment further really or tell you what to do," he said after contemplating for a few moments. "The only one who can really help you and give you a better analysis of the situation is Knock Out. I think I should take you over to the mine now so you can get this straightened out. You can't hide it for too much longer…"

"Are you out of your big, metal head?!" Cynthia squawked and cut him off. "The answer is no! They can't know a thing about this! Knock Out will dissect me if Blitzwing doesn't get to me first and stomps on me! They are amongst the very last souls I would tell! He won't believe me and he will kill me. He'll think I did this to myself to gain revenge on him for when he almost walked off with those witches at the island! I could beg and plead with him and I'm sure it'd be a huge waste of breath and time… I just need some more time to think."

"Hate to break it to you but I think you might be running out of time… When's that little gremlin going to pop out of you?"

For a moment, she glared at him with contempt when he had addressed her child in that context. She surprised herself with her anger and defensiveness even though she knew he was most likely right to call it a creature since it was a fluke of nature that should've never been created. However all the estrogen and other motherly, feminine hormones in her body had altered her mood and mindset lately, making her broody, a little hotheaded, paranoid and easy to upset. It was true that she didn't know exactly how her child would turn out and she had feared what the future would bring but she was becoming protective of them. Though she didn't entirely rule out termination, Cynthia was becoming attached and she knew it.

"My baby may be a hybrid but I'm pretty sure it's not a gremlin," she said sourly.

He raised a brow ridge at her statement, detecting the hostility and touchiness in it. It was becoming clear to him that her maternal instincts were controlling her.

"Yeah, well, you can't hide it forever…" he warned her.

"I know," she said tersely. "I'm due in the middle of April so I have a little bit of time to come up with something." Her face softened and she felt her anxiety and fear override her anger. "Please… I'm begging you, don't tell anyone about this. I'm not ready to tell anyone. I know I haven't been able to figure out what to do but I need more time."

"If you ask me, you ought to tell your boyfriend about it. He won't be so happy if he finds out you aren't telling the truth about your situation."

"He won't be so happy when he finds out!"

"Look…it's obvious to me that he cares for you and he loves you. It's in your best interest to tell him." Lockdown briefly wondered what Blitzwing's reaction would be and he honestly had no idea what he would do or say. In his mind, he would either be elated or infuriated or possibly both. But he assumed that if Cynthia told him as soon as possible and if she remained calm he would also try to not overreact. "Sooner or later, you will see him again and if he sees you looking huge then you can imagine he's not going to appreciate it or be thrilled."

"The thing is, he's going to kill me because this wasn't supposed to happen!" She pointed to her bump. "And I would love it if you didn't tell him anything about it when you go back to that mine… Does he know that you're out here?"

"Megatron did deem it safe enough to drop by and see what was up…"

He seriously debated over whether to ignore her pleas and tell Blitzwing about his femme's expectancy or to respect her wishes and allow her to deal with this swelling issue by herself. Though he didn't know what the triple changer's true thoughts and emotions might be, he had a feeling he would be angered if he found out that she was lying to him about that serious matter. Sparklings were an issue that was not to be taken lightly and Lockdown had a feeling that Blitzwing would not lay a finger on her since she was nurturing his creation. As unstable, cruel and volatile he could be, Lockdown was confident he wouldn't actively do anything to harm his youngling.

"Please, I would like nothing more than to be left alone," she said morosely. "Don't worry about me and don't tell anyone, especially Blitzwing. "I know I'm running out of time but I will think of something sooner or later."

Now he was deeming it not in his immediate or best interest to inform the three faced Cybertronian. The bounty hunter reminded himself that it was not his problem and if he did seek to tell Blitzwing, it would become an issue for him. Although he was fairly confident he could defend himself from an angry triple changer, he didn't want to chance it or risk any injury. It was better to be safe rather than sorry in touchy matters such as that. If he saw her the next time with either a larger bump or nothing at all, he would say nothing more to her. It was her choice and her choice alone…

Lockdown lowered his servo and placed Cynthia on her feet, setting her on the ground. He didn't tear his optics from her as he still found himself spellbound and astonished by her sudden expectancy. Despite the fact he told himself to not dwell on it and allow her to face this on her own, he couldn't stop thinking about it.

Already, within the confines of his helm, he was attempting to rationalize and explain the impossible. A part of him wanted to believe she was carrying some organic man's child but the cyberium he detected ripped that theory to shreds right off the bat. It was true that she begged him and requested him to not tell a soul yet truthfully he didn't know if he could uphold that promise or not. He figured that perhaps he wouldn't be as concerned and intrigued if it the child was fully organic but he couldn't help to not feel curious.

"If you do decide to tell him, let me know before you do so," he told her. "If that idiot doubts who did this to you, he ought to scan you and accept reality. But if in the event he doesn't and refuses to step up, I'll be able to back you up."

"Why do you even remotely care?" she spat back in a defensive tone. Cynthia was becoming appalled with herself. She had blamed her anxiety and hormones on her curtness but she believed it still wasn't the proper way to treat him if he seemed to be offering some help to her. Sighing in disgust, she rubbed her temple. "I'm sorry… I'm so up tight and under so much pressure that I'm acting like a bit of a witch…"

"Don't apologize." He cut her off, leading her to believe he was becoming impatient with her in turn. "You ought to be on your way now before people catch sight of us. But before I go, how're the others doing?"

"Uh, fine… Darien and Amanda seem to be really enjoying the fact they haven't been forced to see any of the Decepticons or bend to Megatron's will. I whole heartedly agree with them myself."

The other two were alive and intact and that was all he needed to hear. He'd report back to Megatron about their status and wellbeing. He also wouldn't say a thing about the interesting tidbit of information he uncovered.

"I'll see you around whenever then," the bounty hunter announced. "It'd be best if we went off on our separate ways, Cyndi."

"Alright," she said, gulping nervously. "Thank you for promising not to tell anyone."

He said nothing else to her and she took that as a sign for her to go. Deciding to not stick around for a few extra seconds to see if he would say anymore, Cynthia began the small journey back to the open space that consisted of the parking lot. She became slowly entangled in her hectic thoughts as she placed distance between herself and the green and black mech, not even hearing him walk off.

As she walked away, she could feel her tears returning to her eyes again, stinging them and partially distorting her vision. She had far preferred that he did not get the truth out of her and become aware of her baby's existence but it was past the point of no return now. The fact that he knew sickened her and made her feel exposed and placed under a microscope like a newly discovered species of bacterium. Without her consent, he had scanned her and saw right through her, literally speaking. She had forgotten that Cybertronians were more than capable of scanning her vitals and taking a peak at her internal readings. Upon rediscovering that they had this ability, it added even more stress and worry onto her already troubled mind.

"_I know it could've been a lot worse but this is not good either…_" she told herself within the privacy of her mind. "_Like an idiot, I forgot that they can do that! Who knows, maybe an Autobot scanned me when I wasn't aware and now they know… Maybe they know everything but they are luring me into a false sense of security! What if they set up a trap..? What if they capture me and threaten… No, Cynthia, don't be dumb! Autobots are not like that! The Decepticons are and you ought to know that since you're forced to work for them!_" She quickened her pace but made sure to not trip over anything in the process. "_Lockdown knows and I'm not entirely confident that I can even trust him!_"

A minute or two later, she emerged from the cover of the slumbering woods. The parking lot looked barren as usual, save for a few cars that were sitting in their respective spaces. Nothing looked out of the ordinary but she felt as if a million pair of eyes were fixed upon her, watching her every move. She felt as if she was prey being observed and stalked by some insidious and invisible predator. Cynthia attempted to collect herself and she pushed herself to continue the walk she at first set out on before she had that little reunion with Lockdown. Nervously, she walked down the sidewalk and the flurries kept falling.

"_I wish I could just have help of some kind!_" she continued to rant to herself. "_I… I feel like I'm going crazy because I don't know what to do! I wish I could get some help, or a hint, a sign or something so I can have a vague idea of what I should do._" Angrily, she sighed and clenched her fists. "_Why can't I just see into the future?! I'd pay to be a psychic right now! And the frustrating thing about it is that I don't believe in that stuff! At least it'd give me some answer rather than nothing at all… I sound like some kind of mad woman!_"

She stopped in her tracks when a thought suddenly dawned on her. When she thought about foresight and clairvoyance, Cynthia was reminded of the curious and somewhat eerie incident where she and Amanda visited a fortune teller nearly a year ago. They had decided to do a reading just to try something new and unusual but both had ended up feeling unnerved and a bit wary of the individual futures she had foretold them. Though this woman had said Amanda would be a mother, no such thing had come to pass and yet Cynthia found herself pregnant. Yet it was entirely possible that Mandy could conceive in a few years time, the older sister was finding herself becoming convinced that perhaps this diviner was right about something.

Perhaps if she visited this woman again, she'd be able to tell her what would happen in the future which would help her to make a choice at long last. She deemed herself ridiculous for even daring to put her faith into the fortune teller but at this point in time, she was ready to consider anything to hasten her decision making process. She also felt it was very wrong and foolish to potentially put the fate of the child in this woman's hands as well. However, if she had foreseen an evil, half alien and half Human being causing pain and sowing destruction with the Decepticon emblem tattooed on their body, then Cynthia would feel it to be necessary to abandon the sentimentality she was feeling to her baby and terminate it. But if she had seen a brighter and happier (if that was possible) future, then maybe her fears would die down. Then maybe she would find the courage and willpower to inform her love of the situation.

There was only one way to find out.

(Cooley residence – 9:00pm)

Marishka felt relieved that she had no other clients that night desiring to have an audience with her. When she received a phone call earlier that day from a woman who begged to have a reading as soon as possible, preferably on that day, she knew that something wasn't right. The woman said that she had met with her a few months back in the winter and when she said her name was Cynthia, the fortune teller remembered her. She was brief on the phone and she could easily sense the anxiety and fear in her voice as she talked. Deep within, Marishka knew that something was wrong and that she needed to assist this woman in whatever way she could.

She didn't bother to tell Pulsar about it since the young and sometimes reclusive Autobot was feeling rather reclusive and moody again and wished to leave her in peace. The Cybertronian had holed herself up in the garage all day anyway and refused to engage in any conversation with her organic foster mother of sorts. Marishka took no offense to her antisocial behavior she sometimes displayed and often left her alone if Pulsar wished it to be so.

The fortune teller found herself hovering by her front door, eagerly anticipating her client's arrival. She told Cynthia to come whenever she felt most comfortable and the younger woman had said she would show up in the evening around nine or so. She assumed she was busy during the day and would have an opportunity to visit her when night fell. The flurries that were occurring earlier on had evolved into a snow shower now and according to the news, about two inches of snow were expected to fall overnight. There wasn't enough snow on the ground to cause any significant worry or seriously hinder traffic but it was enough for Marishka to hope her client wouldn't hit a slippery patch and end up getting into an accident.

With each hour that went by and for as long as she dwelt on the possible matter of nature of this late reading, Marishka was becoming more curious and even a little apprehensive. Less and less, the prospect of an optimistic reading was eluding her and she knew it would perhaps be wise to prepare for a particularly nasty fortune. It was true that her predictions were not always accurate and things could change drastically with even so much as a measly and seemingly insignificant choice but she didn't think everything would be so positive for Cyndi.

While she remained engaged in her thoughts and concerns, Marishka wasn't aware her guest was walking up to her front door. She was finally alerted of her arrival when she knocked on the door, arresting her attention. Without delaying for another second, she opened up the door, granting her entrance into her home.

"I'm sorry for coming so late," Cynthia said softly. "I felt like I needed to collect myself first and calm down a little before I came here to see you."

"It's alright, dear, now worries," Marishka pardoned her. "Are you alright? Besides the obvious troubles I mean?"

Cyndi kicked her boots off and placed them on a mat by the door, careful to not get snow and moisture on her host's floor. Exhaling heavily, she brushed a stray bang out of her eyes and faced Marishka. Her lower lip quivered nervously and she bit it.

"I told you earlier today over the phone that I'm dealing with a very trying and very difficult situation," she started. "I'm at a complete loss as to what to do and I don't know who to turn to. I'm at my wit's end and I think I'm starting to go crazy."

"I know," Marishka said in a sympathetic and soothing tone. She figured that she ought to do what she could to calm her down and give her some peace of mind. "You need me to see what I can foresee for you to help you decide what to do for the future."

"Yes…" She paused for a moment. Cynthia questioned herself if she really wanted to be doing this but this was past the point of no return. "I didn't tell you over the phone that I'm pregnant."

Marishka felt her stomach turn to rot at that reveal. Instantly, she believed her pregnancy was the source of her anxieties and also explained why she seemed so distraught and grave. She didn't realize that she was expecting thanks to the concealing hoodie that she was wearing.

"I only ask you to tell me the truth with what you see," Cyndi went on. "You have no idea how important and imperative it is for me to gain some closure or some sort of advice regarding this. I'm due in April and I do realize I'm running out of time. If I do terminate, I need it done within the next week or two because I don't want my family to find out. I've told no one else about it. You, along with some doctors, now know about it. I haven't even told the father about it but I don't think he'd be…very understanding about the circumstance."

Instantly, she felt pity well up from within her heart and pour forth towards the young twenty three year old. One would have to be an emotionally detached individual or blind if they couldn't see or even feel her turmoil. Although abortion was against the creed of her religion, Marishka chose not to object or argue with her on the matter. What she knew was that she had to try to help Cynthia see what her future would be like.

"Dear, come into my living room and I'll see what I can do for you," she instructed. "I'm sorry that you are facing such a difficult time when it should be a happy one for you."

"Under normal circumstances, maybe I would've been happy," Cyndi stated.

The atmosphere still looked and felt the same as she had remembered when she first visited the home months ago. It was dimly lit and the scent of some sort of incense or scented candle hung in the air. She also remembered the last time she was there, Marishka's daughter had greeted her and Amanda and the girl was nowhere to be seen now.

Almost meekly, she followed the Romanian woman into the living room, walking through the doorway that served as the gateway between the foyer and the den. When she entered that room she could still see the crucifix on the wall and the crown of dried roses that sat upon Christ's head. Just like last time, it sent a chill down her spine but luckily she was not in danger's company in this house. The small table was still in the same spot as last time and she took a seat at it. Marishka joined her seconds later and they faced one another.

"I would say that you shouldn't take everything to heart or treat it as an absolute truth," the diviner warned her.

"I know how wrong you can be," Cynthia said, feeling her patience beginning to fail slowly but surely. "You said my sister would end up being the mother but it turns out, it was me. I just need to have some sort of input."

There was the possibility that Marishka would see something that would shed light on the truth of her child's heritage and Cyndi was afraid of having her discover it but she figured that she'd have to take that chance. It unsettled her but she didn't see her betraying her and informing the world about her predicament either. According to the sonogram and Lockdown's scan, the child seemed completely organic except for the cyberium being detected in them but she hoped and prayed no Human doctors would discover that alien element within the baby.

"I understand," she could sense all the tension and fear in her, making her suspect that there was more to the situation than from what her client was telling her. "Let me take your hand and I will try to see if I can see anything."

Cynthia nervously extended her hand to Marishka, half expecting a fortune filled with death, destruction and misery. However, she reasoned to herself that it had to be done and she couldn't delay this dilemma any longer. She allowed the elder woman to gently grasp her hand, holding it with both of her calloused hands. She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself by exhaling steadily through her nostrils. There was an attempt to think about positive and happy thoughts but those were quickly dashed when she ended up thinking about grim and oppressive things instead.

A few minutes must've passed by but the room was still silent and the atmosphere was still thick and tense with the stench of anxiety and worry. Cynthia remained quiet and immobile to not disturb the diviner or interfere in the process in any way. She didn't dare to look at her face either for fear of seeing an unpleasant frown or a look of horror.

"I feel warmth," Marishka finally said.

Cyndi was instantly snapped from her thoughts and she hesitantly raised her gaze to look back at the woman. Her eyes were closed but there was a soft smile on her face. That alone was overwhelmingly positive and relieving for the young, expecting mother. She dared to let an inkling of hope and happiness into her heart, wondering if everything was going to be alright after all.

"I see an old barn," she described. "It's in the middle of the woods and it looks like it had been abandoned many years ago. I see flowers blooming and the sun is shining. Everything feels like it's in the spring. It feels warm and inviting. I hear birds in the trees. This place feels more like a home than a decrepit barn."

"Yes, my child's father and I have this barn that we go to spend time with one another," said Cyndi. "He started to refurbish it and put furniture in it…" She chuckled gently. "He calls it a nest. But we haven't been able to see each other lately due to some extenuating circumstances."

"You sound as if you miss him."

"I do. He can be very difficult and stubborn. You could even say he can be rather dense and sometimes I just want to choke him but I still love him very much. And if it were a perfect world, I'd be a happy and carefree woman but we're also very different in some aspects… But I am sorry I won't talk anymore. What else do you see?"

She didn't know if that was the wisest thing to ask of the diviner. For a few moments she held her breath, wondering if she could possibly see anything else in the future. Cynthia had merely hoped that she wouldn't foresee anything that would hint to Blitzwing.

Marishka thought it was strange that when she first did her fortune back in February, it was not a very optimistic or light reading. She had felt concerned for her but she was relieved that at least this woman had survived what she had sensed in the future for her. Yet there she sat before her, asking for her help. The elder woman was tempted to ask her what her life had been like since she had last seen her but she feared causing more strife for the younger female. She had a fairly strong premonition that the evil, metal demons from beyond the stars would get close to her but here she was, alive but not so well.

She continued to hold onto Cynthia's hand, with her eyes still closed and her breathing slowed and steadied. Her mind remained open and as serene as possible so she could be more receptive and utilize her abilities more efficiently. Sometimes silence, save for the soft and predictable melody of her breathing, made her focus better and gave her more vivid and powerful readings. Marishka kept her mind open and merely waited…

Then she saw something that she was not entirely prepared for.

Without a doubt, he was familiar to her though they had the great fortune of never crossing paths. She had seen him before on television, specifically on the news where he was seen and reported as terrorizing and attempting to kill his foes. Though he had an anthropomorphic shape, he was certainly not of this world and no carbon-based life form. His stature was proud and tall and his broad chest was puffed out slightly as if he was subtly trying to display his brawn. There was a small but noticeable smile on his face that appeared to be smug and prideful.

As she looked harder and focused on her vision, she could make out the shape of person that stood beside the metal titan's foot. It didn't take her long to identify the Human as Cynthia.

The sentient machine looked down at the woman who stood so innocently beside his stabilizing servo, his smile growing a little larger and with his ruby optics softening for as long as his stare was fixated on her. He suddenly seemed less threatening as his features became gentler and for a fleeting moment, Marishka wondered if it was possible if redemption could be extended to him. Then he lowered his black, glove-like hand and gingerly scooped the organic woman up into it and brought it up to his face. In a complete contrast to the destruction and disregard for life that he had exhibited, he nuzzled her with his cheek, relishing the warmth of her flesh on his hide. She didn't seem to mind his affection in the least bit and huddled against her sweetheart.

As quickly as it came to her, it then vanished and no more was revealed to her. Marishka didn't release her client's hand but had finally opened her eyes. She directly gazed back at her face, her stare serious. Her eyes also betrayed a hint of astonishment.

"What..?" Cynthia said. She had a feeling deep within the pit of her stomach that she knew what Marishka had seen.

"You love him," she retorted in a low voice.

The look in her eyes had told her everything. She must've seen Blitzwing and seen her with him in whatever vision she had witnessed. Cynthia knew it was very possible her secret would be unveiled but in her desperation and desire for closure, she was willing to take that chance. But now that she sat before her, feeling like an open book, she felt fearful. She could find no words to utter and she merely sat in her seat, not knowing what to do or what to think.

"I saw you standing at his foot," the diviner resumed. "But he posed no threat to you at all…" She released Cynthia's hand. "He looked upon you with much love and favor. You returned his love to him… What I had seen was happy and light but I fear that it shall not always be so. You have made contact with those other ones, haven't you?" She leaned back into her seat and folded her hands together. "He is your love as he is the father, isn't he?"

Her tone was still soft and even sounded a little confused but to Cynthia, it sounded accusatory and demeaning. Feeling defeated, Cyndi lowered her head and put her hands up to her face. For once, she felt no tears come to her but she still felt dismally overwhelmed over the fact someone else knew the truth. Alongside Lockdown, Cyndi felt as if she had placed her life and future into the hands of this woman she only met once before. Now her secret was laid bare before her and she alone had the power to condemn her.

"I knew you might find out but I am running out of choices and I cannot think so clearly," she explained. Her head rose again so she could face Marishka. "Please, you cannot tell anyone about this!" Cyndi was thankful she was not crying but suspected it was because she had been crying so much and she had been so emotionally exhausted that she didn't have the strength to even weep. "It all truly is my own fault and I cannot even explain some of my own actions. I was and I still am in love. I feel like the most horrible and wretched person on the face of the Earth because of what I had been forced to do… I am innocent with some things but with some other things, I am so very guilty. Trust me, I am trying to seek a way to redeem myself and clear my conscious but right now, the thing that worries the most is the child growing in me. For these past few weeks, I've been trying to figure out what to do but I've been going around in circles over and over and over again!"

The fact that Cynthia's child was fathered by the peculiar titan was something that perplexed her but for now she decided to not ponder over it. Though it was clear she was with this Decepticon, Marishka believed that she wasn't evil. Judging from how she explained everything and from her character and the sincerity she sensed in her, she got a hunch that perhaps she was forced or didn't have much of a say. She had assumed that since one of the Decepticons knew about her it was likely that some of the others might've known about her as well.

"Are you sure that you love him?" she asked.

"Yes," Cynthia replied. Her answer was automatic and she was completely convinced of herself.

"Do you know without a doubt that he loves you? I know what I've seen and what I felt but I just wanted to ask you these questions, dear."

If he didn't love her then she would've known. She was more than sure that he wasn't playing some intricate, cruel game with her. He wouldn't have done the things that he did for her if he didn't hold her close to his spark. The overprotective tendencies, all the hurdles they had gone through, all the warmth and affection he bore to her and the intimacy they had engaged in was enough proof for her. Cynthia found it impossible that it could be a lie of some sort.

"He does," she said. "I'm trying to make him switch sides and abandon his master but I've had no luck with it. He tells me to not try it either because he's afraid I could end up being killed. But I can't help it that I hate his master but I love him so much. Though he can be a brute and he has done some things that I am not proud of at all, I think that maybe I can change him. I don't know how but I'll figure out a way and get him to abandon the Decepticons."

"It is interesting that you say that," Marishka noted.

"Why?"

The Romanian lady stood up and exited her seat. She walked over to Cynthia's side and stopped beside her.

"My daughter, well, my adopted daughter of sorts, Tristan, believes they cannot be changed," she explained. "She carries a deep hatred of them and she wishes for either their extinction or incarceration."

Cynthia had no idea where this was going but she didn't like it in the slightest bit already. She did recall the girl that showed her and Amanda into the dwelling when they first visited all those months ago but she really didn't think anything else of her.

"I can assure you that I am not like them…" Cyndi said with panic in her voice. "Please, don't get the wrong idea! I was forced…"

"I know, dear, settle," Marishka asserted. "Since you told me a secret of yours, I shall tell you one of mine. You see, my daughter's real mother was killed a long time ago when she was little. Her mother was killed by one of those Decepticons that you may know."

Cyndi was becoming even more sickened at the revelation. Instantly, she thought Marishka was hinting that Blitzwing had killed Tristan's mother. But what didn't make sense was that she said the murder was committed a long time ago when in reality the Decepticons weren't on Earth long enough for Tristan to have her parent killed when she was younger.

"But how is that possible?" the expectant mother queried. "They weren't on Earth long enough!"

"You're correct," Marishka nodded her head. "But there is more to her than meets the eye. I'm sure you're familiar with holoforms?"

Her heart almost stopped in her chest when she at last realized what Marishka was talking about. It was now possible that this woman wasn't going to let her leave the house now that she got the truth out of her and make her face the wrath of her vengeful Autobot foster daughter. It wasn't so farfetched to think that she may end up having to fight for her life to escape.

The door wasn't far. She was going to run to the door and fight back if she had to. Once she got out, she was going to run to her car, get in it and drive away. Cynthia absolutely disliked the thought but if this woman had a spiteful Autobot in her midst whom was all too eager to extract some revenge by killing the love and child of the bot who killed her mother, she saw she might have to call Blitzwing to protect her…


End file.
